Buxus balearica Lam.
Eng.: Balearic boxwood, Spanish boxwood. Spa.: Boj, buje. Fre.: Buis. Ara.: Zaru. Tam.: Azazu, azazer, techet, admem, baqs, beuqs.
Shrub or subshrub 1-3(5) m, robust, erect, ramose. Young branches with glabrous or glabrescent internodes, adult branches glabrous, with striated bark, yellowish-brown. Leaves with leaf blades (2.5)3-4.5(5) × (0.7)1.5-2.5(3) cm, broadly elliptic, oval or oblong, obtuse or subacute, sometimes mucronulate, exceptionally emarginate, attenuate at the petiole, glabrous, usually little lustrous on the upper side, a paler green —sometimes glaucescent— on the underside; petiole up to 3 mm, glabrous or glabrescent on the adaxial face. Inflorescences in axillary glomeruli 7-10 mm in diameter; outer bracts 3.5-4 × 3.5-4 mm, orbicular, glabrous, or with a fine applied indumentum. Pedicel up to 2.5 mm in male flowers. Female flowers sessile. Tepals triangular, in male flowers 3.5-4.5 × 2-2.5 mm, subequal, glabrous; in female flowers c. 4 × 2 mm, keeled. Stamens with filament 4-6 mm; anthers 2-2.5 mm. Stigmas subcircinate. Fruit a spherical capsule (10-14 × 6-9 mm), coriaceous, subglaucous; fruiting stigmas 4-6 mm, incurved, suberect in their lower half, more than 1/4 of the capsule’s length. Seeds 4.5-5.5 × c. 3 mm; caruncula 0.5-1.5 mm.
Flowering:
February to May.
Fruiting:
June to September.
Habitat:
It seems indifferent to the type of substrate (calcareous, schistous, granite soils, etc.). Forests and thickets of low and medium altitude, in a subhumid climate, cool to cold. Steep rocky outcrops, slopes and ledges ± shaded, in ravines and gullies. It reaches 2,200 m in altitude in the High Atlas.
Distribution:
In the Mediterranean region, this species is much rarer than the previous species, but in Morocco, in contrast, is more frequent and abundant. Its North African area comprises the Rif mountains, Kebdana, Beni-Snassen, Middle Atlas, central and eastern High Atlas (especially abundant S of the M’Goun and the Todra Gorge) and the western end of the Saharan Atlas (Jebel Grouz). It also grows dotted around in the N of Algeria.
Conservation status:
Common and widespread species, it is not considered threatened. Currently, it is not assessed at a global level in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In Algeria it is included in the List of protected non cultivated flora (Executive Decree 12-03 on 4-Jan-2012).