''Rhododendron buxifolium'' is a species of

rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; : ''rhododendra'') is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the Ericaceae, heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are native to eastern Asia and the Himalayan ...

native to

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

. It is a shrub or small tree, found only at high elevations on

Mount Kinabalu Mount Kinabalu ( Dusun: ''Gayo Ngaran'' or ''Nulu Nabalu'', ) is the highest mountain in Malaysia and Borneo. With a height of , it is the third-highest peak of an island on Earth, the 28th highest peak in Southeast Asia, and 20th most prom ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Sabah Sabah () is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia located in northern Borneo, in the region of East Malaysia. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's North Kalima ...

state. It is a tree up to 10 m tall, and can grow to its full height in the subalpine forests and shrublands. In the Alpine zone closer to the summit, it grows as a stunted shrub among rocks. The species name ''buxifolium'' means 'box-leaved', because its small glossy leaves resemble those of

boxwood ''Buxus'' is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood. The boxes are native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar, northernmost So ...

(''Buxus'' spp.). It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the upper elevations of Mount Kinabalu, Borneo's highest peak. It grows in subalpine and alpine shrublands from 3,100 to 3,900 metres elevation. The species' estimated

area of occupancy Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while ''surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-dimen ...

(AOO) and

extent of occurrence Extent may refer to: Computing * Extent (file systems), a contiguous region of computer storage medium reserved for a file * Extent File System, a discontinued file system implementation named after the contiguous region * Extent, a chunk of st ...

(EOO) are both 40 km². The species' habitat is protected within

Kinabalu Park Kinabalu Park (), established as one of the first national parks of Malaysia in 1964, is Malaysia's first World Heritage Site designated by UNESCO in December 2000 for its "outstanding universal values" and the role as one of the most importan ...

, and neither its range nor its population are currently declining. Because of its restricted range and habitat, it remains vulnerable to threats like landslides, drought, and the effects of climate change.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q17241681 buxifolium Plants described in 1852 Flora of Mount Kinabalu Endemic flora of Borneo Alpine flora Endemic flora of Malaysia Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker