| Green Buttonwood (Conocarpus erectus) Linnaeus, 1753 |
| Other names: Silver-leaved buttonwood, button mangrove, gray mangrove |
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Conocarpus erectus is a mangrove found on shorelines of tropical America from Florida to Brazil on the Atlantic coast, and from Mexico to northwestern Peru and the Galapagos on the Pacific coast; also in West Africa from Senegal to Angola; introduced in Hawaii and Kuwait. It grows in brackish or saline silts and mudflats in tidal lagoons and bays, usually on the landward side of the mangrove forests, marshes and inland habitats, up to 200 m. This is a dense multiple-trunked shrub or a tree, 1-4 m in height and 20 cm in diameter, but can grow up to 20 m and 1 m DBH. The bark is gray or brown. The leaves are alternate, lanceolate or elliptical, 2-8 cm long, leathery, with two salt glands at the base. Flowers are in stalked panicles of 35-55; ca. 2-5 mm in diameter, no petals. The fruits are 2-winged purplish-brown drupes which float in water.
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