Box trees
| Box trees | ||||||||||||
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Common boxwood ( Buxus sempervirens ), illustration |
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| Buxaceae | ||||||||||||
| Dumort. |
The boxwood family (Buxaceae) are a family of plants from the order of the boxwood-like (Buxales). The Buxaceae family includes four to five genera with 70 to over 100 species .
description
Vegetative characteristics
There are evergreen , herbaceous plants , half-shrubs , shrubs or small trees . The alternate or opposite leaves are simple. The leaf margins are smooth to toothed. Stipules are missing.
Generative characteristics
They are mostly single-sexed ( monoecious ), rarely double-sexed ( dioecious ), with small, inconspicuous flowers . There are four bracts and four to six stamens per male flower . Per female flower bloom six are present and three carpels are a syncarp, Upper permanent ovary grown. Capsule fruits are usually formed.
Systematics and distribution
The Buxaceae family was established in 1822 by Barthélemy Charles Joseph Dumortier in Commentationes Botanicae , p. 54. Type genus is Buxus L. Synonyms for Buxaceae Dumort. are Haptanthaceae C. Nelson , Pachysandraceae J. Agardh , Portulacariaceae Doweld , Stylocerataceae Takht. ex Reveal & Hoogland .
The Buxaceae family has a worldwide, but strongly disjoint distribution. There are taxa in the Holarctic , Paleotropic, and Neotropic . There are habitats from temperate latitudes to the tropics .
The only species found in Central Europe is the common boxwood ( Buxus sempervirens ), it is often used as an ornamental shrub . On the Balearic Islands , Sardinia and in southern Spain is the Balearic boxwood ( Buxus balearica ) spread.
The family is divided into two tribes and four or five genera with 80 to over 100 species:
- Tribus Sarcococceae (Syn .: Stylocerateae Pax ):
- Pachysandra Michx. : Of the only three species left, one occurs in southeastern North America and two in East Asia.
- Meat berries ( Sarcococca Lindl. ): The 15 to 20 evergreen shrub species are common in Southeast Asia.
- Styloceras A.Juss. : The roughly three types are common in South America .
- Tribus Buxeae Dumort. : It contains only one genus:
- Box trees ( Buxus L. , Syn .: Buxella Tiegh. , Crantzia Sw. , Notobuxus Oliv. , Tricera Schreb. , Macropodandra Gilg .): The 70 to 100 species are widespread in Eurasia , from Central to South Africa and in Central America .
swell
- The Buxaceae family on the AP website.
- The Buxaceae family at DELTA. (Section description)
- Brief description of the family of the Botanical Garden Tübingen ( Memento from June 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ).
- Tianlu Min, Paul Brückner: Buxaceae. , P. 321 - online with the same text as the printed work , In: Wu Zheng-yi, Peter H. Raven, Deyuan Hong (ed.): Flora of China. Volume 11: Oxalidaceae through Aceraceae , Science Press and Missouri Botanical Garden Press, Beijing and St. Louis 2008, ISBN 978-1-930723-73-3 . (Sections Description and Distribution)
Web links
- Entries about Buxaceae in Plants For A Future
- Buxaceae in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), USDA , ARS , National Genetic Resources Program. National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland.
- Buxaceae at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis