''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

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 being tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are

frost Frost is a thin layer of ice on a solid surface, which forms from water vapor in an above-freezing atmosphere coming in contact with a solid surface whose temperature is below freezing, and resulting in a phase change from water vapor (a gas) ...

-tolerant.

Centres of diversity A center of origin is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. They are also considered centers of diversity. Centers of origin were first identified in 1924 by Ni ...

occur in Cuba (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (9 species). They are slow-growing evergreen

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and small trees, growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

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 Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

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.

Selected species

Europe, northwest Africa, Asia

*''

Buxus austro-yunnanensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Yunnan box; southwest China) *''

Buxus balearica ''Buxus balearica'', the Balearic boxwood, is a shrub or small evergreen tree typical of the Mediterranean forest. It grows wild in Algeria, Morocco, the Island of Sardinia and Spain. Description The Balearic boxwood is a monoecious tree or ...

'' (Balearic box;

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

, southern Spain, northwest Africa) *''

Buxus bodinieri ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus cephalantha ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus cochinchinensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' ( Malaysia, Vietnam) *'' Buxus colchica'' (Georgian box; western Caucasus; considered also a

syn. The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...

of ''B. sempervirens'') *''

Buxus hainanensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Hainan box; China: Hainan) *''

Buxus harlandii ''Buxus harlandii'', the Harland boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the family Buxaceae. It is native to coastal southeast China, from Hong Kong and other Guangdong islands down to Hainan, and to Vietnam. Care must be taken when purchasi ...

'' (Harland's box; southern China, Vietnam) *''

Buxus hebecarpa ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus henryi ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Henry's box; China) *''

Buxus hyrcana ''Buxus sempervirens'', the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of flowering plant in the genus ''Buxus'', native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco ...

'' (Caspian box; Alborz, eastern Caucasus; considered also a

of ''B. sempervirens'') *''

Buxus ichangensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native plant, native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, north ...

'' (China) *'' Buxus latistyla'' (China) *''

Buxus linearifolia ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus megistophylla ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus microphylla ''Buxus microphylla'', the Japanese box or littleleaf box, is a species of flowering plant in the box family found in Japan and Taiwan. It is a dwarf evergreen shrub or small tree growing to tall and wide. Description In the case of ''Buxus mi ...

'' (Japanese box; Korea, China, Vietnam; long cultivated in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

) *''

Buxus mollicula ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus myrica ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China, Vietnam) *''

Buxus papillosa ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native plant, native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, north ...

'' (western Himalaya) *'' Buxus pubiramea'' (China) *'' Buxus rivularis'' ( Philippines) *''

Buxus rolfei ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native plant, native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, north ...

'' (Borneo) *''

Buxus rugulosa ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China, eastern Himalaya) *''

Buxus rupicola ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Malaysia) *'' Buxus sempervirens'' (common box or European box; western and southern Europe, except far southwest) *''

Buxus sinica ''Buxus sinica'', the Chinese box or small-leaved box, is a species of flowering plant in the family Buxaceae, native to central and southern China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan. A shrub or small tree, in the wild it is found in a variety of ha ...

'' (Chinese box; China, Korea, Japan) *''

Buxus stenophylla ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (China) *''

Buxus wallichiana ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Himalayan box; Himalaya)

Africa, Madagascar

*''

Buxus acuminata ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Africa: Zaire; syn. ''Notobuxus acuminata'') *'' Buxus calcarea'' (Madagascar endemic) *''

Buxus capuronii ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native plant, native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, north ...

'' (Madagascar endemic) *''

Buxus hildebrandtii ''Buxus hildebrandtii'' is a species of shrub or small tree native to the Horn of Africa. Description ''Buxus hildebrandtii'' is a shrub or small tree. It is generally below 6 meters in height, but can grow up to 9 meters high and a trunk diame ...

'' (eastern Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia) *''

Buxus humbertii ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Humbert's box; Madagascar endemic) *''

Buxus itremoensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Madagascar endemic) *''

Buxus lisowskii ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Congo) *'' Buxus macowanii'' (Cape box; eastern and northern South Africa) *''

Buxus macrocarpa ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Madagascar endemic) *'' Buxus madagascarica'' (Madagascan box; Madagascar, Comoros) *'' Buxus monticola'' (Madagascar endemic) *'' Buxus moratii'' (Madagascar, Comoros) *''

Buxus natalensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Natal box; eastern South Africa; syn. ''Notobuxus natalensis'') *''

Buxus nyasica ''Buxus nyasica'' is a species of plant in the family Buxaceae. It is endemic to Malawi. It is threatened by habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat become ...

'' (Malawi) *'' Buxus obtusifolia'' (eastern Africa; syn. ''Notobuxus obtusifolia'') *''

Buxus rabenantoandroi ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Madagascar endemic; syn. ''B. angustifolia'' GE Schatz & Lowry ''non'' Mill.)

Americas

*''

Buxus aneura ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus arborea'' (Jamaica) *'' Buxus bartletii'' (Central America) *'' Buxus brevipes'' (Cuba) *''

Buxus citrifolia ''Buxus citrifolia'' is a species of plant in the family Buxaceae. It is found in Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela. This interesting shrub has not been known to occur in Central America, having only been collected and/or reported in Cuba, Puerto R ...

'' (Venezuela) *'' Buxus crassifolia'' (Cuba) *''

Buxus ekmanii ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Cuba) *''

Buxus excisa ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus heterophylla'' (Cuba) *''

Buxus imbricata ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus lancifolia'' (Mexico) *'' Buxus macrophylla'' (Central America) *''

Buxus mexicana ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Mexico) *''

Buxus muelleriana ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native plant, native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, north ...

'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus olivacea'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus pilosula'' (Cuba) *''

Buxus portoricensis ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Puerto Rico) *''

Buxus pubescens ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Mexico) *''

Buxus rheedioides ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost South ...

'' (Cuba) *'' Buxus vahlii'' (Vahl's box or smooth box; Puerto Rico; syn. ''B. laevigata'')

Selected cultivars

* ''Buxus'' 'Green Velvet' '' * ''Buxus microphylla'' var. ''koreana'' 'Winter Gem'

Uses

Cultivation

Box plants are commonly grown as

hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...

s and for topiary. In Britain and mainland Europe, box is subject to damage from

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

s of ''

Cydalima perspectalis ''Cydalima perspectalis'' or the box tree moth is a species of moth of the family Crambidae, first described by Francis Walker, the English entomologist, in 1859. Native to Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea, far-east Russia and India, it has invade ...

'' which can devastate a box hedge within a short time. This is a recently introduced species first noticed in Europe in 2007 and in the UK in 2008 but spreading. There were 3 UK reports of infestation in 2011, 20 in 2014 and 150 in the first half of 2015.

Wood carving

Owing to its fine grain it is a good wood for fine wood carving, although this is limited by the small sizes available. It is also resistant to splitting and chipping, and thus useful for decorative or

storage Storage may refer to: Goods Containers * Dry cask storage, for storing high-level radioactive waste * Food storage * Intermodal container, cargo shipping * Storage tank Facilities * Garage (residential), a storage space normally used to store car ...

boxes. Formerly, it was used for wooden combs. As a timber or wood for carving it is "boxwood" in all varieties of English. Owing to the relatively high density of the wood, boxwood is often used for

chess piece A chess piece, or chessman, is a game piece that is placed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. It can be either White and Black in chess, white or black, and it can be one of six types: King (chess), king, Queen (chess), queen, Rook (chess ...

s; unstained boxwood for the white pieces, and stained (' ebonized') boxwood for the black pieces in lieu of ebony. The extremely fine

endgrain Wood grain is the longitudinal arrangement of wood fibers or the pattern resulting from such an arrangement. Definition and meanings R. Bruce Hoadley wrote that ''grain'' is a "confusingly versatile term" with numerous different uses, including ...

of box makes it suitable for woodblock printing and woodcut blocks, for which it was the usual material in Europe. In the 16th century, boxwood was used to create intricate decorative carvings, including intricate rosary prayer beads. As of 2016, the largest collection of these carvings is at the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto. High quality wooden spoons have usually been carved from box, with

beech Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engle ...

being the usual cheaper substitute.

Musical instruments

Due to its high density, resistance to chipping, and relatively low cost, boxwood has been used to make parts for various stringed instruments since antiquity. It is mostly used to make tailpieces, chin rests and tuning pegs, but may be used for a variety of other parts as well. Other woods used for this purpose are rosewood and ebony. Boxwood was a common material for the manufacture of

recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

s in the eighteenth century, and a large number of mid- to high-end instruments made today are produced from one or other species of boxwood. Boxwood was once a popular wood for other woodwind instruments, and was among the traditional woods for Great Highland bagpipes before tastes turned to imported dense tropical woods such as

cocuswood ''Brya ebenus'', also known as espino de sabana, granadillo, cocus wood, cocuswood, and coccuswood, is a species of Flowering plant, flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the Caribbean islands of Cuba and Jamaica. Horticul ...

, ebony, and African blackwood.

Historical

Prior to the development of

plastics Plastics are a wide range of synthetic polymers, synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their Plasticity (physics), plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be Injection moulding, moulded, Extrusion, e ...

, boxwood was important to a wide range of fields from engineering to arts, construction to cartography, due to its density and stability making it one of the best available materials for measurement scales and technical drawing rulers. Alternative materials of the era were ivory, paper, and metal. Disadvantages of ivory included that it would slightly shrink over time, the size and shape of blanks was limited by that of the tusk, and supply was limited. Paper was soft, difficult to use, and did not last long. Metal marked the surface it was being used on and increased expense. Ebony was another dense and stable wood prized for drawing instruments but typically only if scales were not necessary; boxwood's light color contrasted much better with scales. Devices made of boxwood included set squares, scale rulers, yardsticks, folding rulers, slide rules,

Marquois scales Marquois scales (also known as Marquois parallel scales or Marquois scale and triangle or military scales) are a mathematical instrument that found widespread use in Britain, particularly in military surveying, from the late 18th century to Wor ...

, T-squares,

protractors A goniometer is an instrument that either measures an angle or allows an object to be rotated to a precise angular position. The term goniometry derives from two Greek words, γωνία (''gōnía'') 'angle' and μέτρον (''métron'') 'me ...

, and a wide range of other measuring, metering, and straight-edge devices and tools, as well as general functional items such as

combs Combs may refer to: Places France * Combs-la-Ville, a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris United Kingdom *Combs, Derbyshire, England *Combs, Suffolk, England United States *Combs, Arkansas, a community *Combs, Kentucky, a com ...

, weaving shuttles, etc. A ''boxwood rule'' generally refers to a style of folding ruler with brass hinge(s). General Thomas F. Meagher decorated the hats of the men of the Irish Brigade with boxwood during the American Civil War, as he could find no

shamrock A shamrock is a young sprig, used as a symbol of Ireland. Saint Patrick, Ireland's patron saint, is said to have used it as a metaphor for the Christian Holy Trinity. The name ''shamrock'' comes from Irish (), which is the diminutive of ...

References

External links

Box / Royal Horticultural Society

American Boxwood Society

Revision of the genus Buxus in Madagascar
(pdf file) {{Authority control Eudicot genera Plants used in bonsai Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Selected species

Europe, northwest Africa, Asia

Africa, Madagascar

Americas

Selected cultivars

Uses

Cultivation

Wood carving

Musical instruments

Historical

See also

References

External links