Definition of "buttonwood" []

• See sycamore. (noun)
• An evergreen shrub or tree (Conocarpus erectus) growing in mangrove forests of tropical America and western Africa and having alternate leathery leaves and small buttonlike heads of greenish flowers. Also called button mangrove. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This name, as well as sycamore, is given, among us, to the large tree commonly called the buttonwood; but the tree here mentioned is different."
• "The Big Board's roots as an icon of American capitalism go back to 1792, when traders signed an agreement under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street."
• "On May 17, 1792, after years of shouting out on the street, a group of 24 prominent brokers met under a buttonwood tree at what is now 68 Wall Street and decided to move indoors, so to speak."