This lifeform is widespread in North America. This lifeform is found on the islands of the Caribbean Ocean. The white color will help identify this lifeform. This lifeform is found in swamps or very moist ground. This lifeform is scarce.

Button bush or little snowball (Cephalanthus occidentalis) is naturally found from New Brunswick west to Ontario and Wisconsin and south to Florida and Texas. This species also occurs in Cuba. The southwestern form (California and Arizona) is probably distinct.  This shrub can be up to 12 feet tall. Tree forms up to 20 feet tall are known. The roundish white flower heads as well as the swamp or shoreline locale help identify this species.

Cephalanthus genus is native to Africa, Asia, and North and Central America.  There are about 10 species of shrubs and small trees in this genus.  The leaves are short petioled, entire, and either opposite or whorled.  The flowers are typically in somewhat round heads. There are two species growing in greater North America, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Madder Family (Rubiaceae) is a large family with perhaps more than 10,000 species of mostly trees and shrubs. As of 1994, there were about 318 species in 64 genera either native to or established in greater North America, including Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Hawaii, and Greenland.

Rubiales Order is worldwide with five families.

Dicots (Dicotyledoneae Class) are the predominant group of vascular plants on earth. With the exception of the grasses (Monocots) and the Conifers (Gymnosperms), most of the larger plants that one encounters are  Dicots. Dicots are characterized by having a seed with two outer shell coverings. Some of the more primitive Dicots are the typical hardwood trees (oaks, birches, hickories, etc). The more advanced Dicots include many of the Composite Family flowers like the  Dandelion, Aster, Thistles, and Sunflowers. Although many Monocots reach a very high degree of specialization, most botanists feel that the Dicots represent the most advanced group of plants.

Seed plants (Phylum Embryophyta) are generally grouped into one large phylum containing three major classes: the Gymnosperms, the Monocots, and the Dicots. (Some scientists separate the Gymnosperms into a separate phylum and refer to the remaining plants as flowering plants or Angiospermae.)

For North American counts of the number of species in each genus and family, the primary reference has been John T. Kartesz, author of A Synonymized Checklist of the Vascular Flora of the United States, Canada, and Greenland (1994). The geographical scope of his lists include, as part of greater North America, Hawaii, Alaska, Greenland, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.

Kartesz lists 21,757 species of vascular plants comprising the ferns, gymnosperms and flowering plants as being found in greater North America (including Alaska, Hawaii, Greenland, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands).

There are estimates within the scientific world that about half of the listed North American seed plants were originally native with the balance being comprised of Eurasian and tropical plants that have become established.

Plant kingdom contains a large variety of different organisms including mosses, ferns, and seed plants. Most plants manufacture their energy from sunlight and water. Identification of many species is difficult in that most individual plants have characteristics that have variables based on soil moisture, soil chemistry, and sunlight.

Because of the difficulty in learning and identifying different plant groups, specialists have emerged that study only a limited group of plants. These specialists revise the taxonomy and give us detailed descriptions and ranges of the various species.  Their results are published in technical journals and written with highly specialized words that apply to a specific group.

On the other hand, there are the nature publishers. These people and companies undertake the challenging task of trying to provide easy to use pictures and descriptions to identify those species.