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Buxus is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae
Buxaceae

Buxaceae is a small family of four or five genera and about 90-120 species of flowering plants. They are shrubs and small trees, with a cosmopolitan distribution....
. Common names include box (majority of English-speaking countries) or boxwood (North America).

The boxes are native to western and southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, southwest, southern and eastern Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
, northernmost South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
, Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 and the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
, with the majority of species tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost
Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from Saturation air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air....
-tolerant.






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Buxus Sempervirens0
Buxus is a genus
Genus

A genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the classification of living and fossil organisms. The taxonomic ranks are domain , kingdom , phylum, class , order , family , genus, and species....
 of about 70 species in the family Buxaceae
Buxaceae

Buxaceae is a small family of four or five genera and about 90-120 species of flowering plants. They are shrubs and small trees, with a cosmopolitan distribution....
. Common names include box (majority of English-speaking countries) or boxwood (North America).

The boxes are native to western and southern Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
, southwest, southern and eastern Asia
Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent. It covers 8.6% of the Earth's total surface area and, with over 4 billion people, it contains more than 60% of the world's current human population....
, Africa
Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, Madagascar
Madagascar

Madagascar, or Republic of Madagascar , is an island nation in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa. The main island, also called Madagascar, is the List of islands by area, and is home to 5% of the world's plant and animal species, of which more than 80% are Endemism to Madagascar....
, northernmost South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, Central America
Central America

Central America is a central geography region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmus portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast....
, Mexico
Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
 and the Caribbean
Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
, with the majority of species tropical or subtropical; only the European and some Asian species are frost
Frost

Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from Saturation air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air....
-tolerant. Centres of diversity occur in Cuba
Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is a country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba , the island of Isla de la Juventud, and several adjacent small islands....
 (about 30 species), China (17 species) and Madagascar (9 species).

They are slow-growing evergreen
Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant having leaf all year round. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage for part of the year....
 shrub
Shrub

A shrub or bush is a horticulture rather than strictly Botany category of woody plant, distinguished from a tree by its multiple stems and lower height, usually less than 5-6 m tall....
s and small tree
TREE

TREE was a Boston hardcore punk band formed in the summer of 1990. They were active in the Boston music scene until disbanding in 2002....
s, growing to 2-12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaves
Leaf

In botany, a leaf is an above-ground plant Organ specialized for photosynthesis. For this purpose, a leaf is typically flat and thin, to expose the cells containing chloroplast to light over a broad area, and to allow light to penetrate fully into the tissues....
 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
Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes Morphology aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....
 with both sexes present on a plant. The fruit
Fruit

The term fruit has different meanings dependent on context, and the term is not synonymous in food preparation and biology. In botany, which is the scientific study of plants, fruits are the ripened Ovary of flowering plants....
 is a small capsule 0.5-1.5 cm long (to 3 cm in B. macrocarpa), containing several small seed
Seed

A seed is a small Plant embryogenesis plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some Food storage. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant....
s.

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
    Buxus colchica

    Buxus colchica is a species of Buxus native to Azerbaijan, Georgia , Russia, and Turkey. It is threatened by habitat loss.It is an evergreen shrub or small tree, very closely related to Buxus sempervirens, and commonly treated as a synonym of it....
     (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
    Buxus microphylla

    Buxus microphylla is a species of Buxus native to Japan and Taiwan.It is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing to 2?3 m tall. The leaf are bright green, 10?25 mm long, oval with a rounded or notched tip....
     (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
    Buxus sempervirens

    Buxus sempervirens is a flowering plant in the genus Buxus, native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, from southern England south to northern Morocco, and east through the northern Mediterranean region to Turkey....
     (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
    Buxus obtusifolia

    Buxus obtusifolia is a species of plant in the Buxaceae family. It is found in Kenya, Tanzania and the forests of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. This is used as a spice by the gourment Sanjeev Kapoor....
     (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
    Buxus citrifolia

    Buxus citrifolia is a species of plant in the Buxaceae family. It is found in Colombia, Panama, and Venezuela....
     (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
    Buxus vahlii

    Buxus vahlii is a species of plant in the Buxaceae family. It occurs in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It is threatened by habitat loss....
     (Vahl's Box or Smooth Box; Puerto Pico; syn. B. laevigata)


Symbolism and uses


Boxes are commonly used for hedges and topiary
Topiary

Topiary is the art of creating sculptures in the medium of clipped trees, shrubs and sub-shrubs. The word derives from the Latin word for an ornamental landscape gardener, topiarius, creator of topia or "places", a Greek word that Romans applied also to fictive indoor landscapes executed in fresco....
. Owing to the relatively high density of the wood
Wood

Wood is an organic material; in the strict sense wood is produced as secondary xylem in the stems of woody plants, notably trees but also shrubs, etc....
 (it is one of the few woods that is denser than water), boxwood is often used for chess piece
Chess piece

Chess pieces vary in both value and abilities. A Rules_of_chess#Initial_setup consists of each player having the following equipment:* 1 King ...
s. Wooden chess sets almost always use boxwood for the white pieces and commonly use stained ("ebonized") boxwood for the black pieces, in lieu of ebony
Ebony

Ebony is a general name for very dense black wood. In the strict sense it is yielded by several species in the genus Diospyros, but other heavy, black woods are sometimes also called ebony....
. Boxwood is also used for high quality violin and viola fittings (pegs and tailpiece).

External links

  • (pdf file)


Nurseries

North America
  • Evergreen Plant Nursery, Evensville, TN.
  • Ashridge Trees, Somerset
    Somerset

    Somerset is a Counties of England in South West England. The county town is Taunton, which is in the south of the county. The Ceremonial counties of England of Somerset borders the counties of Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west....
    , UK, .
  • Langley Boxwood Nursery, Hampshire
    Hampshire

    Hampshire , sometimes historically Southamptonshire, Hamptonshire, , or the County of Southampton, is a Counties of England on the south coast of England....
    , UK, .
Australasia
  • Andreasens Nurseries, Kemps Creek, NSW, Australia. [www.andreasensgreen.com.au]