Buxus
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Buxus | |
---|---|
Common box, Buxus sempervirens | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Order: | Buxales |
Family: | Buxaceae |
Genus: | Buxus L. |
Species | |
About 70 species; see text |
Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box or boxwood.[1][2][3]
The boxes are
They are slow-growing
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.[4]
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 cochinchinensis (Malaysia, Vietnam)
- syn.of B. sempervirens)
- Buxus hainanensis (Hainan box; China: Hainan)
- Buxus harlandii (Harland's box; southern China, Vietnam)
- Buxus hebecarpa (China)
- Buxus henryi (Henry's box; China)
- syn.of B. sempervirens)
- Buxus ichangensis (China)
- Buxus latistyla (China)
- Buxus linearifolia (China)
- Buxus megistophylla (China)
- Buxus microphylla (Japanese box; Korea, China, Vietnam; long cultivated in Japan)
- Buxus mollicula (China)
- Buxus myrica (China, Vietnam)
- 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 hildebrandtii (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 nyasica (Malawi)
- Buxus obtusifolia (eastern Africa; syn. Notobuxus obtusifolia)
- Buxus rabenantoandroi (Madagascar endemic; syn. B. angustifolia GE Schatz & Lowry non Mill.)
Americas
- Buxus aneura (Cuba)
- Buxus arborea (Jamaica)
- 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 Rico)
- Buxus pubescens (Mexico)
- Buxus rheedioides (Cuba)
- Buxus vahlii (Vahl's box or smooth box; Puerto Rico; syn. B. laevigata)
Selected cultivars
Uses
Cultivation
Box plants are commonly grown as hedges and for topiary.
In Britain and mainland Europe, box is subject to damage from caterpillars of Cydalima perspectalis 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.[5]
Wood carving
Owing to its fine grain it is a good wood for fine
Owing to the relatively high density of the
The extremely fine
High quality wooden spoons have usually been carved from box, with beech 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
Boxwood was a common material for the manufacture of
Historical
Prior to the development of plastics, 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.[10] 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
A boxwood rule generally refers to a style of folding ruler with brass hinge(s).[11]
See also
- Bibliography of hedges and topiary
- Boxwood blight
- Cydalima perspectalis – box tree moth
References
- ^ "Oxford English Dictionary". OED. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
box 1. A genus ( Buxus) of ... shrubs...; specially B. sempervirens. boxwood, n. 1. The wood of the box-tree; 2. The tree or shrub itself.
- ISBN 9780394471761.
box 1. …of the genus Buxus, esp. B. sempervirens… boxwood 1. the…wood of the box… 2. the…shrub itself.
- ^ Webster's New International Dictionary, Second Edition. Springfield Massachusetts: G. & C. Merrium Company. 2 July 1934. pp. 320–321.
box 1. …of the genus Buxus, esp. B. sempervirens… boxwood 1. the…wood of the box… 2. the…shrub itself.
- S2CID 84897706.
- ^ Invasive caterpillar 'could spread in UK'
- ^ "Chess Piece Materials". The Chess ZoneDiaphania perspectalis.
- ^ "Inner Space: In Small Wonders, the AGO's strangest possessions take centre stage". Toronto Star, November 13, 2016. Page E1. Murray White.
- ^ See Theocritus Idyll 24.110, where Heracles is taught to play a boxwood lyre.
- ISBN 978-0-7546-6669-1. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
- ^ Stanley, William Ford (1878). A Descriptive Treatise on Mathematical Drawing Instruments (PDF) (5 ed.). New York: E. & F. N. Spon. pp. 197–199.
- ^ "How It Was Made - Boxwood Rules" (PDF). Hawley Tool Collection. Kelham Island Museum. Retrieved 29 December 2021.
- ^ "Illustrations of the Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg". Irish in the American Civil War. Damian Shiels. November 27, 2011. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
External links
- Box / Royal Horticultural Society Archived 2013-03-22 at the Wayback Machine
- American Boxwood Society
- Revision of the genus Buxus in Madagascar (pdf file)