More than a Hedge—The Unexpected History of Buxus sempervirins
Buxus sempervirins—Boxwood
I’ve always found boxwood almost as boring as arborvitae. However, just like arborvitae, digging into its backstory revealed some interesting details. Buxus is in the family Buxaceae, and is sister to four other genera. The plants in this family are surprisingly varied, as growth habits range from dioecious trees to perennial shrubs with bisexual flowers, and many things in between. The family has a worldwide distribution, while Buxus seems to be focused in the tropics, found in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa, Madagascar, and East Asia (Byng, 2014).
I had thought that boxwood was only used for low hedges and topiary, which are garden styles that don’t interest me personally. They’re pretty, but it seems high maintenance. However, once I looked into it I found that due to the density of the wood, box has been used for musical instruments, croquet balls, combs, and furniture dating back to the ancient Egyptians. It has been used as hair dye, and the FA Cup, a British soccer tournament, uses random draws of carved boxwood balls to determine which teams play one another (Mabberley, 2017). And it keeps going! Box apparently is a useful enough material that the Neanderthals used it to make digging sticks 171,000 years ago (Aranguren et al., 2018).
Aside from the topiary and hedges association, the only other thing I knew about boxwood was that there is a blight that is devastating gardens in New England. One of my former coworkers was a plant pathologist in Connecticut, and he said that most of his days were spent identifying boxwood blight. I always get a little bit depressed about blights, because it makes me think of all the chestnuts that were lost. However, I did find a study detailing attempts to find boxwood cultivars that are more resistant to boxwood blight (Calonectria pseudonaviculata) and also Boxwood leafminer (Monarthropalpus flavus). After testing 146 cultivars for leafminer resistance, and 75 for blight resistance, they found seven that have good resistance to both pests. However, B. sempervirins cultivars in particular did not offer a lot of blight resistance (Yoder et al., 2022). If it fades from our gardens, I’m sure its hardier cousins will take its place. Boxwood’s been with us too long to disappear entirely.
References:
Aranguren, B., A. Revedin, N. Amico, F. Cavulli, G. Giachi, S. Grimaldi, N. Macchioni, and F. Santaniello. 2018. Wooden tools and fire technology in the early Neanderthal site of Poggetti Vecchi (Italy). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 115: 2054–2059.
Byng, J. W. 2014. Flowering Plants Handbook. 1st ed. Plant Gateway Ltd.
Mabberly, D. 2017. Mabberly’s Plant Book. Fourth. Cambridge University Press.
Yoder, K. S., R. A. Dunn, J. B. Saunders, T. R. Mays, M. D. Yanny, C. Hong, and H. L. Scoggins. 2022. Field Performance of Buxus Cultivars and Selections Against Boxwood Leafminer and Boxwood Blight. Journal of Environmental Horticulture 40: 129–142.
