Buxus

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(Redirected from Box (tree))
This article is about the box tree. For the receptacle, see box.

{{Taxobox | color = lightgreen | name = Box or Boxwood | image = Buxus sempervirens.jpg | image_width = 240px | image_caption = Common Box Buxus sempervirens | regnum = Plantae | divisio = Magnoliophyta | classis = Magnoliopsida | ordo = Buxales | familia = Buxaceae | genus = Buxus | genus_authority = L. | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = About 70 species; see text }}

Image:Buxus vdg.jpg 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
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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. The inconspicuous flowers mean that boxes are usually only grown for their foliage. They are particularly favoured for hedges and topiary 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.

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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).

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External links

Template:Commonsca:Boix da:Buksbom-slægten de:Gewöhnlicher Buchsbaum fr:Buis it:Buxus li:Paumebuimke nl:Buxus (geslacht) pl:Bukszpan wieczniezielony sq:Bushi tr:Şimşir

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