Box Family
What are they?
The Common Box or Boxwood is a European species that has become very popular as a garden ornamental as it can be pruned heavily to form dense, miniature hedges. It is in this form that it became popular in Europe for creating formal, Italian-style gardens in the grounds of palaces and stately homes.
Where are they found?
A common garden plant and most likely to be found as isolated plants on the sites of abandoned properties, often long after the original home has been demolished.
Identification
Once known, Common Box is easily identified by its tough, leathery leaves and its distinctive, sometimes overpowering, odor.
Common Box Buxus sempervirens
A popular garden plant that may occasionally be found on the site of abandoned properties but doesn't appear to propogate itself locally. Flowers April. A very distinctive plant due to the strong, slightly pungent odor given out by the leaves which can often be detected some distance from the plant. Often grown in a dwarf form for hedging but can also form a large shrub or small tree to 15 feet or so high. Leaves are evergreen, thick and leathery. Flowers are petalless and carried in tight clusters in the leaf axils.
| |
|
 |
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| |