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Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. (1966). 9780394471761, Random House. ISBN 9780394471761
The boxes are native plant 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 and small , growing to 2–12 m (rarely 15 m) tall. The leaf 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, plant sexuality 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 .
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.
The genomes of Buxus austro-yunnanensis and Buxus sinica have been sequenced.
In Britain and mainland Europe, box is subject to damage from 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. Invasive caterpillar 'could spread in UK'
Traditional Japanese boxwood combs are called Tsuge Gushi and have been in production since the Heian Period.
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 ; unstained boxwood for the white pieces, and stained ('ebonized') boxwood for the black pieces in lieu of ebony.
The extremely fine endgrain 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. "Inner Space: In Small Wonders, the AGO's strangest possessions take centre stage". Toronto Star, November 13, 2016. Page E1. Murray White.
High quality wooden spoons have usually been carved from box, with beech being the usual cheaper substitute.
Boxwood was a common material for the manufacture of recorders 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, ebony, and African blackwood.
Devices made of boxwood included , scale rulers, Meterstick, folding rulers, , Marquois scales, T-squares, , and a wide range of other measuring, metering, and straight-edge devices and tools, as well as general functional items such as , 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.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Revision of the genus Buxus in Madagascar (PDF file)
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