Buxus wallichiana Baill.

 
  • Family : BUXACEAE
    (Boxwood Family)
  • Family (Hindi name) : SHAMSHAD FAMILY (शमशाद फैमिली)
  • Family (as per The APG System III) : Buxaceae
  • Species Name (as per The IPNI) : Buxus wallichiana Baill.
  • Common name : Himalayan Boxwood, Himalayan Box Tree
  • Vernacular name :
    • Papri, Shamshad (Himachali)
    • Papri, Shamshad, Chikri (Hindi)
  • Habit : Shrub
  • Habitat : In shady rocky ravines; often gregarious
  • Comments / notes : Wood hard, fine-grained, and durable, used for fine carving, engraving, turning, geometrical instruments, and combs. Extracts from the leaves. bark, and wood are used medicinally. This species prefers shady habitat, and avoids hot aspect that is, exposed slopes, direct sunlight. The leaves have been reported to be fatal to cattle and other browsing animals except goats. They taste bitter due to the presence of alkaloids like buxines.
  • Key identification features : A dense leafy evergreen shrub to 2 m or a small tree to 7 m, with 4-sided branchlets, and with soft corky yellowish-grey bark fissured into crocodile-scales' on old stems. Flowers yellowish, in dense rounded axillary clusters 6-8 mm. Leaves entire leathery, linear-lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, 1.5-6 cm, with a blunt or notched apex, shining above and hairless. Capsule ovoid 7-12 mm, with 3 diverging styles, 3-valved.
  • Flower, Fruit : December-May
  • Distribution :
    • Uttarakhand : Uttarakhand
    • Himachal Pradesh : Mandi district
  • Exotic/Native : Native
  • World Distribution : India, Afghanistan, East Himalaya, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, West Himalaya
  • Literature :
    • Oleg P & Adam S (1984). Flowers of Himalaya. Oxford University Press: 1242
    • Uniyal B.P., Sharma J.R., Choudhery U., Singh D.K. (2007). Flowering Plants of Uttarakhand: A Checklist. Bishen Singh Mahendra Pal Singh: 217
    • GRIERSON A.J.C. & LONG D.G. (1983). FLORA OF BHUTAN INCLUDING A RECORD OF PLANTS FROM SIKKIM Vol. 2: Part 1. ROYAL BOTANIC GARDEN, EDINBURGH: 132
  • Read more :
  • Citation : Sankara Rao, K., Deepak Kumar (2024). India Flora Online. http://indiafloraonline-ces.iisc.ac.in/plants.php?name=Buxus wallichiana. Downloaded on 14 December 2024.

Field Image(s)

India Distribution

World Distribution

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