Buxus sempervirens L.
Eng.: Common boxwood, European boxwood. Spa.: Boj, buje. Fre.: Buis commun. Ara.: Zaru. Tam.: Ibiqis, baqs, beuqs, azazer.
Evergreen shrub or small shrublet, monoecious, up to 5-6 m in height (some specimens reaching 10 m), erect, highly branched, with dense foliage. Trunk upright or ± tortuous depending on the habitat. Bark yellowish-brown, a little fissured. Young branches quadrangular, glabrescent, green. Leaves (13-30 × 4-15 mm), ovate-elliptic, obtuse, often emarginate, attenuate at the base, entire, subcoriaceous, glabrous; dark green and bright on the upper side of the leaf, yellow-green on the underside; in autumn they turn orange-red; petiole 1.5-2.5 mm. Inflorescence axillary in dense glomeruli of 5-6.5 mm in diameter, with a central female flower surrounded by male flowers, with external bracts ovate 1.5-2 mm. Flowers sessile, whitish, with ovate tepals, 2 × 2-2.5 mm in male flowers and obovate tepals, 2.5-3.5 × 2-2.5 mm in female flowers. Stamens 4, with filaments 2.5-3 mm. Fruit an ovoid capsule 8-11 mm, coriaceous, glaucous, crowned by three fruiting stigmas 1.5-2.5 mm (less than 1/4 of the length of the capsule). Capsule dehiscent into three bicorn valves, with two seeds each. Seed (5-8 mm) oblong, trigone, with black and smooth surface, carunculate.
Flowering:
February to June.
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 humid climate, cool to cold. It reaches 2,800 m in altitude in the High Atlas.
Distribution:
Central and southern Europe, SW Asia and NW Africa. In Africa it is not very common, although it may become locally very abundant. In Morocco it grows in the central High Atlas (mountains and valleys situated N of the M’Goun Massif, towards Demnat and Beni-Mellal). In Algeria it grows in the eastern Tellian Atlas (Guergur and Tababort mountains) and in the central Saharan Atlas (Bu Taleb, Maadid). It has also been cited in the N of Libya.
Conservation status:
Rare but widely distributed 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).