Buttonwood n. (Bot.) The Platanus occidentalis, or American plane tree, a large tree, producing rough balls, from which it is named; called also buttonball tree, and, in some parts of the United States, sycamore. The California buttonwood is Platanus racemosa.
... birds, which spread their wings, and flitted and fluttered, and alighted now here, now there, and busily scratched their food out of the wormy earth. Most of these winged people seemed to have their domicile in a robust and healthy buttonwood-tree. It aspired upward, high above the roofs of the houses, and spread a dense head of foliage ... — The Blithedale Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne
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