Buxus
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 Common Box Buxus sempervirens | ||||||||||||
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| About 70 species; see text |
Buxus is a genus of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include boxwood (North America) and box (all other English-speaking countries).
The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, with the majority of species tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost-tolerant. Centres of diversity occur in Cuba (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (nine species).
They are slow-growing evergreen shrubs and small trees, growing to 2-12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaves are opposite, rounded to lanceolate, and leathery; they are small in most species, typically 1.5-5 cm long and 0.3-2.5 cm broad, but up to 11 cm long and 5 cm broad in B. macrocarpa. The flowers are small and yellow-green, monoecious with both sexes present on a plant. The fruit is a small capsule 0.5-1.5 cm long (to 3 cm in B. macrocarpa), containing several small seeds.
The genus splits into three genetically distinct sections, each section in a different region, with the Eurasian species in one section, the African (except northwest Africa) and Madagascan species in the second, and the American species in the third. The African and American sections are genetically closer to each other than to the Eurasian section (Balthazar et al., 2000).
- Selected species
- Europe, northwest Africa, Asia
- Buxus austro-yunnanensis (Yunnan Box; southwest China)
- Buxus balearica (Balearic Box; Balearic Islands, southern Spain, northwest Africa)
- Buxus bodinieri (China)
- Buxus cephalantha (China)
- Buxus cochinchensis (Malaysia)
- Buxus colchica (Georgian Box; western Caucasus)
- Buxus hainanensis (Hainan Box; China: Hainan)
- Buxus harlandii (Harland's Box; southern China)
- Buxus hebecarpa (China)
- Buxus henryi (Henry's Box; China)
- Buxus hyrcana (Caspian Box; Alborz, eastern Caucasus)
- Buxus ichangensis (China)
- Buxus latistyla (China)
- Buxus linearifolia (China)
- Buxus megistophylla (China)
- Buxus microphylla (Japanese Box; Korea, China; long cultivated in Japan)
- Buxus mollicula (China)
- Buxus myrica (China)
- Buxus papillosa (western Himalaya)
- Buxus pubiramea (China)
- Buxus rivularis (Philippines)
- Buxus rolfei (Borneo)
- Buxus rugulosa (China, eastern Himalaya)
- Buxus rupicola (Malaysia)
- Buxus sempervirens (Common Box or European Box; western and southern Europe, except far southwest)
- Buxus sinica (Chinese Box; China, Korea, Japan)
- Buxus stenophylla (China)
- Buxus wallichiana (Himalayan Box; Himalaya)
- Africa, Madagascar
- Buxus acuminata (Africa: Zaire; syn. Notobuxus acuminata)
- Buxus calcarea (Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus capuronii (Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus hildebrantii (eastern Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia)
- Buxus humbertii (Humbert's Box; Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus itremoensis (Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus lisowskii (Congo)
- Buxus macowanii (Cape Box; eastern and northern South Africa)
- Buxus macrocarpa (Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus madagascarica (Madagascan Box; Madagascar, Comoros)
- Buxus monticola (Madagascar endemic)
- Buxus moratii (Madagascar, Comoros)
- Buxus natalensis (Natal Box; eastern South Africa; syn. Notobuxus natalensis)
- Buxus obtusifolia (eastern Africa; syn. Notobuxus obtusifolia)
- Buxus rabenantoandroi (Madagascar endemic; syn. B. angustifolia GE Schatz & Lowry non Mill.)
- Americas
- Buxus aneura (Cuba)
- Buxus bartletii (Central America)
- Buxus brevipes (Cuba)
- Buxus citrifolia (Venezuela)
- Buxus crassifolia (Cuba)
- Buxus ekmanii (Cuba)
- Buxus excisa (Cuba)
- Buxus heterophylla (Cuba)
- Buxus imbricata (Cuba)
- Buxus lancifolia (Mexico)
- Buxus macrophylla (Central America)
- Buxus mexicana (Mexico)
- Buxus muelleriana (Cuba)
- Buxus olivacea (Cuba)
- Buxus pilosula (Cuba)
- Buxus portoricensis (Puerto Pico)
- Buxus pubescens (Mexico)
- Buxus rheedioides (Cuba)
- Buxus vahlii (Vahl's Box or Smooth Box; Puerto Pico; syn. B. laevigata)
Symbolism and uses
Boxes are commonly used for hedges and topiary, and the dense wood (called "boxwood" in all countries) is valued for wood carving and the making of wood type for printing. The inconspicuous flowers mean that boxes are usually only grown for their foliage. They are particularly favoured for hedges, topiary, and mazes in formal gardens. Given time, neat low hedging can grow to enormous size, as at Powis Castle in north Wales. Often, however, they are kept dwarfed, as in the famous gardens at Château Villandry in France.
European Box has lent its name to several places in southern England, for example Bexhill-on-Sea in Sussex and Box Hill in Surrey, and to other things, including the Boxwood Festival for flutists.
The American Boxwood Society specializes in the study of boxwoods, and has produced a number of publications.
References
Balthazar, M. von, Peter K. Endress, P. K., and Qiu, Y.-L. 2000. Phylogenetic relationships in Buxaceae based on nuclear internal transcribed spacers and plastid ndhF sequences. Int. J. Plant Sci. 161(5): 785–792 (available online).
