Buxus
L.
Shrubs or dwarf trees, monoecious, evergreen, glabrous. Leaves opposite, sessile or
subsessile, entire, penninerved, coriaceous. Inflorescences axillary spikes, short, dense-flowered;
bracts often numerous, like sepals but smaller; flowers solitary in each bract, sessile or pedicellate,
the terminal one often female, the remainder male. Male flowers: sepals 4 - 6, 2-seriate, imbricate,
unequal; stamens 4 - 6, opposite to sepals; filaments inserted on receptacle around the pistillode,
free, exserted; anthers dorsifixed near the base, oblong at length, recurved; connective thick;anther-thecae introrse, parallel, opening by longitudinal slits; pistillode truncate or 3-lobed,
rarely absent. Female flowers: sepals 4 - 6, 2-seriate, imbricate, outer ones smaller; ovary
tricarpellary, 3-locular; ovules 2 in each locule, pendulous from outer angle of the locule; styles
3, short, thick, distant or rarely contiguous at the base. Fruits capsular, ovoid, 3-horned at apex
formed by the persistent styles, coriaceous, loculicidally dehiscent into 3, 2-seeded and 2-
horned valves; seeds oblong, somewhat 3-sided, carunculate; testa shiny black; endosperm
rather fleshy; cotyledons oblong.
Old World, West Indies, North and Central America, temperate and subtropical areas, absent from E. Pacific and Australia, ca 50 species; 3 species in India.
Literature. HATUSIMA, S. (1942). A revision of the Asiatic Buxus. J. Dept. Agric. Kyushu Imp. Univ. 6: 261 - 341, tt. 16 - 27. PURI, G. S. (1948). The genus Buxus in Pleistocene of Kashmir. Indian Forester 74: 354 - 357.
Old World, West Indies, North and Central America, temperate and subtropical areas, absent from E. Pacific and Australia, ca 50 species; 3 species in India.
Literature. HATUSIMA, S. (1942). A revision of the Asiatic Buxus. J. Dept. Agric. Kyushu Imp. Univ. 6: 261 - 341, tt. 16 - 27. PURI, G. S. (1948). The genus Buxus in Pleistocene of Kashmir. Indian Forester 74: 354 - 357.
KEY TO THE SPECIES
| 1 a. Dwarf shrubby plants; leaves elliptic or subspathulate, 5 - 12 mm long | 1. Buxus microphylla |
| b. Tall shrubby plants; leaves oblong-lanceolate, 2.5 – 7.5 cm long | 2 |
| 2 a. Young branches hoary pubescent; leaves finely hairy to glabrous, whitish-papil- late below with inconspicuous nerves; horns of fruits erect | 2. Buxus papillosa |
| b. Young branches hirsute with spreading hairs; leaves glabrous except the hirsute midrib and petiole, not whitish-papillate, but with conspicuous nerves; horns of fruits divergent | 3. Buxus wallichiana |
