 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2011) |
| Buxus | |
|---|---|
| |
| Common box, Buxus sempervirens | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Buxales |
| Family: | Buxaceae |
| Genus: | Buxus L. |
| Species | |
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About 70 species; see text | |
Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood.[1][2][3]
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 being 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 (9 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.[4]
- ^ "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.
- ^ The Random House dictionary of the English language. New York City: Random House. 1966. pp. 249–250. 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.
- ^ von Balthazar, M.; Endress, P. K.; Qiu, Y.-L. (2000). "Phylogenetic relationships in Buxaceae based on nuclear internal transcribed spacers and plastid ndhF sequences". International Journal of Plant Sciences. 161 (5): 785–792. doi:10.1086/314302. S2CID 84897706.