anybody have any "boxwood" or know anything about it?

[phinds]

In doing my "wood ID through anatomy" article, I found that of the 2 "known" species and one unknown species that I have under the common name "boxwood", there is considerable confusion. The specifics are at the very bottom of this page:

http://hobbithouseinc.com/personal/woodpics/_anatomy/diffuse%20porous/exotics/_exotics.htm

Since there are at least 88 species from 41 genera that have the word "boxwood" as all or part of one or more of their common names, some confusion is inevitable.

I'm really interested in two things.

1) What species, if you know the botanical name, do YOU call "boxwood"
2) Do you have any "boxwood", whatever species it is, that you could send me a small piece of so that I can compare it to what I already have.

Thanks,

Paul

[Texas Ranger]

box elder, Acer negundo.

[phinds]

Interesting. I've never heard box elder called box wood before. Is that a common designation, do you know?

My database, which lists 88 species that have boxwood as all or part of one or more of their common names does not include box elder as one of them.

[LeeB]

Don't know if it's common or not, but it's the only name I know it by.

[WDH]

I am not aware of any domestic arborescent species that go by the common name boxwood. 

[Dave Shepard]

You made Mr have to look up a word, that doesn't happen too often. I thought I knew what it meant, and I did, but I had to confirm. I've planted many buxus before, but none of them were arborescent. :D

[WDH]

 :D :D

[phinds]

I am not aware of any domestic arborescent species that go by the common name boxwood.

Right. Neither am I.

[Texas Ranger]

Regional names change a bit.  I had to get used to Ellum here in Texas, rather than Elm.  8)

[phinds]

Regional names change a bit.  I had to get used to Ellum here in Texas, rather than Elm.  8)

Is that how It's SPELLED or just how it is pronounced? I have a database w/ 140,000 common wood names, and neither "ellum" not "elum" show up in it.

[BorealBeals]

Regional names do change quite a bit. Acer negundo in my dendro class was referred to as Manitoba maple  :P. Love thy latin

[Texas Ranger]

phonetic, cleaned up a bit there is urine ellum.

[phinds]

Regional names do change quite a bit. Acer negundo in my dendro class was referred to as Manitoba maple  :P. Love thy latin

Box elder has at least 80 other common names including at least 10 with the word maple in them.

Latin names are only a little better. There are woods that have 6 or 8 different Latin names, often with several of them in widespread use at the same time because industry is VERY slow to catch up to what botanists consider the "accepted name" at any one time and even the botanists don't always agree.

[Texas Ranger]

Botanists make their name by finding a new subspecies of a plant.  Not surprising there are a number of names for the same plant.

[phinds]

Botanists make their name by finding a new subspecies of a plant.  Not surprising there are a number of names for the same plant.

More of a problem than competing botanists is just botanists who don't KNOW that a plant has already been names in some other country. I think that's less of a problem now than it was 50 and 100 years ago because communication is so much better, what with the Internet making everything readily available.

[Thehardway]

Here in VA we have lots of Boxwoods. They were popular amongst english settlers and plantation owners for formal gardens.  There is a boxwood farm not far from where I sit. http://www.englishboxwoods.com/

The owner, Mr. Southhall could probably answer all of your questions. Most boxwoods are planted as ornamentals for shrubbery and landscaping but I know of a boxwood that was near 20' tall and nearly as large a canopy.  It is on a farm about 30 mi. from here that belonged to a revolutionary war general or colonel as I am told.  It is over 200yrs. old.  It has probably been 20 years since I was there but if I get back past there and it hasn't been taken down I will take a picture and maybe get a small cutting.  These would be Buxus sempervirens

[phinds]

Here in VA we have lots of Boxwoods ...

Interesting info. Thank you.

What research I've done and from the answers here and on other forums, I conclude that pretty much everyone in the USA means Buxus sempervirens when they say boxwood, as opposed to any of the other 87 species in my database (which may be used in other countries)

[Thehardway]

I would say that is a correct assumption.  Buxus and its variants would be the commonly referred to as "Boxwood".  The American boxwood is probably the only variant that gets big enough in North America to make anything out of and that would be rare.  Boxwood as Lumber is typically imported from Venezuela and is called west indian boxwood.

It is heavy, hard and dense, fine grained and used for rulers, handles and inlay.

There are several woods which are referred to in local vernacular as boxwood because they were used for making boxes. 

Here are a few of them:  Dogwood (Cornus florida), Persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), Common Juniper (Juniperus communis) boxes for dairy products,  Paulownia, Spanish cedar (cigar boxes) Northern White Cedar, (boxing salted herring), Padauk,   and many numerous others.

[John.Howard]

Yes, Buxus sempervirens is a native of western Europe. In England we find it on chalk in the south. Grows to about 30 feet. In the wild I have only seen it on Box hill in Surrey. It is commonly planted as an evergreen hedge. I have lots of old chisels with boxwood handles. Very distinctive appearance with subtle grain. Mainly carving chisels, framing chisels were typically handled with Elm or Ash. Beautiful little tree and beautiful wood. 

[Dave Shepard]

Boxwood is also used in plane making and wooden rules. If you see a strip of wood let into the bottom of a molding plane,  it is known as being "boxed". It has very good wear characteristics.

[phinds]

Yeah, I still have a boxwood triangular engineering ruler that I bought in the early 60's (along with my bamboo slide rule  :laugh:)

[Dave Shepard]

I was at Berkshire Botanical Gardens today and saw a boxwood hedge. I snapped a pic for you. It's the only kind of buxus I run into.



 

[Texas Ranger]

Yeah, I still have a boxwood triangular engineering ruler that I bought in the early 60's (along with my bamboo slide rule  :laugh:)

Me, too, Phinds

[phinds]

I was at Berkshire Botanical Gardens today and saw a boxwood hedge. I snapped a pic for you. It's the only kind of buxus I run into.

Thanks. How big do these get?

[Dave Shepard]

Typically not very tall, as they are trained into a hedge. I wonder what they would do if left to grow wild. I suspect that they would not get very treelike, I mean arborescent.