Boxwood
Boxwood or Box often refers to Buxus, a genus of over fifty species in the family Buxaceae. It is also called Common Box or European Box (latin; Buxus sempervirens). These are slow growing evergreen shrubs or trees, that are generally lower than 10 metres, making them ideally suited and well know for their use for topiary.
There is evidence of boxwood growing in England as early as the 7000BC, but is died out, whilst by 000 the Egyptians were using it as hedging in gardens, and whilst the earliest record of the timber being used is a table in the tomb of King Midas in 00 BC which was discovered in 1951. The Romans re-introduced Boxwood to England in 100BC and Boxes are now considerd native to western and southern Europe, southwest, southern and eastern Asia, Africa, Madagascar and South America, great varieties found today in Cuba and China aswell as Madagascar.
The box hedge was not popular with the natural landscape movement of the 1700's and the renowned landscape designer Capability Brown removed much formal box hedging from gardens, and also in turn agricultural hedges might be replaced with sunken boundaries or Ha Ha's invented around the same time. The 1800's saw an influx or exotic plants alongside the trend for glasshouses and a return to the poularity of knot garden and parterres, which often featured clipped box hedging and edging with clipped cotton lavender. This continued into the 1900's with characters such a Lutyens and the increased appearance of topiary in the Chealsea flower show. Today boxwood species continues to be a staple hedging species and is not listed as being a species under threat.
The sapwood and heartwood for box are almost indistinguishable from one another, with the heart being considered durable whilst overall it is light cream yellow in colour which darkens with long sunlight exposure. As it is quite homogenous but generally small in size and therefore well-suited to carving and wood turning, for such things as chess pieces, musical instruments (flutes, recorders, woodwinds, etc.), rulers and handles.
[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings
11 things you didn't know about wood.
Definition of tree for planning purposes.
Legally harvested and traded timber.
Predicting service life of timber structures.
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification.
Recognising wood rot and insect damage in buildings.
The differences between hardwood and softwood.
Whole life carbon assessment of timber.
Wood and educational buildings.
Featured articles and news
Awe-inspiring medieval great barns.
Registered building inspectors
Building types and conflicts of interest updates explaineed.
Engineering services still struggle with labour shortages
According to latest quarterly services survey of the sector.
Infrastructure that connect the physical and digital domains.
Harnessing robotics and AI in challenging environments
The key to nuclear decommissioning and fusion engineering.
BSRIA announces Lisa Ashworth as new CEO
Tasked with furthering BSRIA’s impressive growth ambitions.
Public buildings get half a million energy efficiency boost
£557 million to switch to cleaner heating and save on energy.
CIOB launches pre-election manifesto
Outlining potential future policies for the next government.
Grenfell Tower Inquiry announcement
Phase 2 hearings come to a close and the final report due in September.
Progress from Parts L, F and O: A whitepaper, one year on.
A replicated study to understand the opinion of practitioners.
ECA announces new president 2024
Electrical engineer and business leader Stuart Smith.
A distinct type of countryside that should be celebrated.
Should Part O be extended to existing buildings?
EAC brands heatwave adaptation a missed opportunity.
Definition of Statutory in workplace and facilities management
Established by IWFM, BESA, CIBSE and BSRIA.
Tackling the transition from traditional heating systems
59% lack the necessary information and confidence to switch.
The general election and the construction industry
As PM, Rishi Sunak announces July 4 date for an election.