Buttonbush

Shrub with very dark gray or black bark. It has shiny dark-green spear-or egg-shaped pointed leaves 3 to 6 inches long. The leaves are opposite or whorled in 3′s or 4′s along the stem. Flowers of buttonbush are easily identified by their greenish-white tube flowers in dense ball-shaped clusters about 1 inch in diameter. Seed heads are brown and split in half to reveal small seeds. It usually blooms between May and September but these were found in late March.