Korean boxwood
Buxus sinica var. insularis · Buxaceae · 회양목
How to spot it
One-year-old twigs are green, square and hairy, with thick elliptic small leaves (12 to 17 mm).
Look
- Leaves
- The leaves are thick and elliptic, 12 to 17 mm long, with hairs on the lower part of the midrib above, the margin on the underside rolled back, and a 2 mm hairy leaf stalk.
- Flowers
- Pale yellow flowers bloom in March to April, with male and female flowers in small groups. Male flowers have whitish filaments and yellow anthers; female flowers have a triangular ovary with three stigmas (per the National Species List of Korea).
- Fruit
- The fruit is an egg-shaped capsule 10 mm long, hairless, brown, ripening from early September to late October.
Where it grows
- In Korea
- Native (Korean Peninsula)
- Native to
- Japan and the Korean Peninsula south of Pyeongannam-do and Hamgyeongnam-do, Jeju-do and the southern coastal islands; grows mainly on limestone.
- Ecology
- Grows mainly on limestone.