Buxus Sempervirens

''Buxus sempervirens'', the common box, European box, or boxwood, is a species of 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.Rushforth, K. (1999). ''Trees of Britain and Europe''. Collins .British Trees
''Buxus sempervirens''
'' Buxus colchica'' of western Caucasus and ''B. hyrcana'' of northern Iran and eastern Caucasus are commonly treated as synonyms of ''B. sempervirens''.Med-Checklist
''Buxus colchica''
Ww2.bgbm.org

Description

''Buxus sempervirens'' is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing 1 to (3 to ) tall, with a trunk up to in diameter (exceptionally to 10 m tall and 45 cm diameter). Arranged in opposite pairs along the stems, the leaves are green to yellow-green, oval, 1.5–3 cm long, and 0.5–1.3 cm broad. The monoecious flowers are inconspicuous but highly scented, greenish-yellow, with no petals, and are insect pollinated; the fruit is a three-lobed capsule containing three to six seeds.

Distribution and habitat

The species typically grows on soils derived from chalk, limestone, usually as an understorey in forests of larger trees, most commonly associated with European beech (''Fagus sylvatica'') forests, but also sometimes in open dry montane scrub, particularly in the Mediterranean region. Box Hill, Surrey is named after its notable box population, which comprises the largest area of native box woodland in England.Mitchell, A. F. (1974). ''A Field Guide to the Trees of Britain and Northern Europe''. Collins Bean, W. J. (1976). ''Trees and Shrubs Hardy in the British Isles'' 8th ed., vol. 1. John Murray .

The species is locally naturalised in parts of North America.

Cultivation

In Britain, four Roman burials featured coffins containing sprays of the evergreen box, a practice unattested elsewhere in Europe. Box leaves have also been found from several towns, villas and farmsteads in Roman Britain, indicating ornamental planting.

Box remains a very popular ornamental plant in gardens, being particularly valued for topiary and hedges because of its small leaves, evergreen nature, tolerance of close shearing, and scented foliage. The scent is not to everyone's liking: the herbalist John Gerard found it "evil and lothsome" and Daniel Defoe recounts that at Hampton Court Palace Queen Anne had the box hedging removed because she found its odour offensive.

In the American South, it has sometimes been called "rich man's hedge," and was often used to anchor the landscape plantings on either side of the front door of a house. The scent, most pungent on warm summer days, is not found disagreeable by all, despite its having been likened to cat urine.

Several cultivars have been selected, including 'Argenteo-variegata' and 'Marginata' with variegated foliage; such "gilded box" received a first notice in John Parkinson's ''Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris'' (1629). 'Vardar Valley', a slow-growing particularly hardy semi-dwarf cultivar, Huxley, A., ed. (1992). ''New RHS Dictionary of Gardening''. Macmillan . was selected in 1935 by the American botanist Edward Anderson in the upper Vardar valley and sent to the Arnold Arboretum for evaluation.

The following varieties and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-
*''B. sempervirens'' 'Elegantissima'
*''B. sempervirens'' 'Latifolia Maculata'

Pests and diseases

A pest which spreads through ''Buxus sempervirens'' is '' Cydalima perspectalis'', the box tree moth. A kind of box, ''B. microphylla'' is more injured by ''C. perspectalis'' than ''B. sempervirens''.

Buchsbaum Buchsbaumzünsler Schadbild.JPG, Infested box tree.
Buchsbaumzünsler frassbild IMG 4360.JPG, Detail of the defoliation.
Cydalima perspectalis carterpillar.jpg, Larva.
Invasion pyrale 2016 05.jpg, Adults.

Uses

The boxwood is identified with the Hebrew word ''tə’aššûr'' oft-mentioned in the Book of Isaiah. Catholic households in climates where palms are scarce or nonexistant often use boxwood twigs instead to adorn their crosses on Palm Sunday.

Wood

Slow growth of box renders the wood ("boxwood") very hard (possibly the hardest in Europe along with ''Cornus mas'') and heavy, and free of grain produced by growth rings, making it ideal for cabinet-making, the crafting of flutes and oboes, engraving, marquetry, woodturning, tool handles, mallet heads and as a substitute for ivory; the wood is yellow in color. " Digging sticks" fashioned by Neanderthals more than 170,000 years ago in Italy were made from boxwood. The British wood-engraver Thomas Bewick pioneered the use of boxwood blocks for wood-engraving.Pg.171, Lawrence, E., ed. (1985) ''The Illustrated Book of Trees & Shrubs''. Gallery Books .

In Old English, a box was originally a receptacle made of boxwood.

Medicinal plant

The leaves were formerly used in place of quinine, and as a fever reducer.

BuisFeuille.jpg, Foliage
Buisfleurs.jpg, Flowers
Boxwood Buxus sempervirens var. arborescens Bark 2597px.jpg, Bark of ''B. sempervirens'' 'Arborescens'
Buxus sempervirens0.jpg, Plant growing in dry Mediterranean scrub
Softwood stemcuttings.jpg, Cuttings

''Buxus sempervirens'' is a medicinal plant used to treat many diseases. It contains steroidal alkaloids such as cyclobuxine. It also contains flavonoids.

''B. sempervirens'' was not known for its medical use until the beginning of the 1600s. After this it was found that the leaves (containing alkaloids, oils and tannin), the bark (containing chlorophyll, wax, resin, lignin and minerals) and the oil from the wood had a medical effect. It then was used to treat gout, urinary tract infections, intestinal worms, chronic skin problems, syphilis, hemorrhoids, epilepsy, headache and piles,Williamson, E.M., Potter’s Herbal Cyclopaedia. 2003, Essex: Saffron Walden. but also had the reputation of curing leprosy, rheumatism, HIV, fever and malaria.Barceloux, D.G., Medical Toxicology of Natural Substances: Foods, Fungi, Medicinal Herbs, Plants and Venomous Animals. John Wiley & Sons, 2008.Rahman, A.-u. and M.I. Choudhary, Chapter 2 Chemistry and Biology of Steroidal Alkaloids, in The Alkaloids: Chemistry and Biology, A.C. Geoffrey, Editor. 1998, For treating malaria it was used as a substitute for quinine, but because of the side effects and the fact that there are better medicinal alternatives than ''B. sempervirens'' it is normally not used any more to treat these diseases.Neves, J.M., et al., Ethnopharmacological notes about ancient uses of medicinal plants in Tras-os-Montes (northern of Portugal). Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2009. 124(2): p. 270-283.

Homeopaths still make use of the leaves against rheumatism. While herbalists have used box leaf tea to lower fevers, it is very rarely used today.

In Turkey, where the plant is called ''Adi şimşir'', this tea (one glass a day) is still consumed for antihelminthic, diaphoretic, and cholagogue purposes.Baytop, T., Therapy with Medicinal Plants in Turkey (past and present). Istanbul University Publications, 1999. No: 3255. Also, the leaves from ''B. sempervirens'' were used as an auburn hair dye.Bown, D., The Royal Horticultural Society new encyclopedia of herbs and their uses. 2002, London :: Dorling Kindersley.

The plant Buxus sempervirens has been well investigated chemically. During late 1980s, Dildar Ahmed while working on his PhD thesis under the supervision of Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, isolated a number of steroidal alkaloids from the leaves of the plant. A new system of nomenclature for buxus alkaloids was also proposed based on buxane nucleus. He also isolated a flavonoid glycoside, and named it galactobuxin based on the fact that it contains a galactose ring.

See also

* Boxwood blight
* Box tree moth
* Gothic boxwood miniature

References

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Medicinal plants of Africa
Medicinal plants of Asia
Medicinal plants of Europe
sempervirens
Plants described in 1753
Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus