Small shrub to 1m tall. Shoots square in section, hairless or downy. Leaves 1.5-2 cm long, hairless, sometimes elliptic but generally oblanceolate and widest above the middle, sometimes roundish, tip rounded or notched. Flower clusters axillary and terminal.

var. japonica (Muell.) Rehder & Wils., Japanese Boxwood. Open, broad, fast growing shrub. Young shoots hairless, square in section. Leaves glossy, roundish, 1-1.5 cm long, 0.6-1 cm wide, venation obscure. Introduced to the West from Asia in about 1890.

var. koreana Nakai from China and Korea, Korean Box. Young shoots and leaf stalks hairy. Leaf margins bent downwards. Lateral veins indistinct above.

var. microphylla Low shrub with leaves to 2.5 cm long, 1 cm wide, mostly widest above the middle.

var. sinica Rehder &Wils. from China, Japan and Taiwan, Chinese Box. Young shoots hairy, the margins slightly bent down. Lateral veins distinct above. Syn. B. sinica (Rehder &Wils.) M. Cheng.

Japan, China, Korea.

Similar to smaller variants of B. sempervirens but the young shoots and leaves are hairless except in var. koreana and var. sinica.

Source: Spencer, R. (2002). Buxaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 3. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 2. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.