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Buxus liukiuensis; photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-12

Buxus liukiuensis (Makino) Makino

Liukiu boxwood

Buxaceae · Nansei-shoto, Taiwan

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Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Buxus liukiuensis, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY) 49 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
17.5°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,549mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Buxus liukiuensis is a species of flowering plant in the box family Buxaceae, native to the Ryukyu Islands, and Taiwan. A shrub, it is found at low to middle elevations.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Buxus liukiuensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Buxus

Buxus is a genus of about seventy species in the family Buxaceae. Common names include box and boxwood.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Buxus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,852 mm of 2,457 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 9.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to May.

Rain

2,457 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,852 mm of it April to November. Wettest month August at 313 mm, driest month December at 143 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,794 mm to 2,792 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,549 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,457 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.5 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 16.2 °C to 18.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.5 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 17.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Buxus liukiuensis through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 17.5 °C; 2,457 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 16–41RH 57–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 19–2020 / 19–2021 / 20–2223 / 22–2425 / 24–2627 / 26–2829 / 28–2928 / 28–2928 / 27–2826 / 25–2624 / 23–2421 / 20–21
Night °C18 / 16–1818 / 16–1819 / 18–2022 / 20–2224 / 23–2426 / 25–2627 / 27–2727 / 27–2726 / 26–2725 / 24–2522 / 21–2319 / 18–20
Rain mm144 / 92–177155 / 101–184163 / 110–198193 / 118–206239 / 212–299244 / 206–322174 / 121–280313 / 193–348302 / 162–425223 / 178–272164 / 130–223143 / 112–167
DLI16 / 15–1920 / 19–2227 / 26–2932 / 32–3435 / 34–3637 / 36–3841 / 40–4238 / 36–3834 / 32–3527 / 27–2820 / 19–2116 / 15–17
RH %58 / 55–6159 / 56–6261 / 60–6464 / 63–6766 / 65–6969 / 67–7167 / 65–7067 / 65–7065 / 64–6861 / 60–6459 / 57–6257 / 55–59

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 4% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (13 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1282:6224 (25.875, 131.225). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 13 distinct grid cells holding 13 of the 15 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1282:6224 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 4% land and none of the 10 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.00_131.250, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNansei-shoto, Taiwan · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker22.077, 121.509 · in the densest population, 115 records (79% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 145 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 13 of them in the land cells it reads, of 15 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 55 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 13 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 130 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 145 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Buxus liukiuensis, photograph 1did not loadBuxus liukiuensis, photograph 2did not loadBuxus liukiuensis, photograph 3did not loadBuxus liukiuensis, photograph 4did not loadBuxus liukiuensis, photograph 5did not loadBuxus liukiuensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Satakentia liukiuensis Satakentia liukiuensis Arecaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedGarcinia subelliptica Garcinia subelliptica Common Garcinia Photo: CC0, author not statedZanthoxylum beecheyanum Zanthoxylum beecheyanum Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, M108tLeptochilus longissimus Leptochilus longissimus Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengRhododendron scabrum Rhododendron scabrum Ericaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 石川 Shihchuan from 台北市 (Taipei City), 台灣…Angelica hirsutiflora Angelica hirsutiflora Apiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Buxus 11 in the reference

Buxus balearica Buxus balearica Balearic box Photo: CC BY, Yves BasBuxus bodinieri Buxus bodinieri Buxaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, CamphoraBuxus harlandii Buxus harlandii Harland's boxwood Photo: CC0, author not statedBuxus macowanii Buxus macowanii Cape Box Photo: CC BY-SA, Dr. Johann C. KnobelBuxus microphylla Buxus microphylla Littleleaf boxwood Photo: CC BY, Marco MussitaBuxus natalensis Buxus natalensis Box Wattle Photo: CC BY-SA, Rosemary Harrison Buxus rugulosa Buxaceae Buxus sempervirens Buxus sempervirens Box Photo: CC BY, Louis AuregliaBuxus sinica Buxus sinica Chinese boxwood Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuBuxus vahlii Buxus vahlii Vahl's boxwood Photo: CC BY, MarinaBuxus wallichiana Buxus wallichiana Buxaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, MPF

Names & registers

Also known as Buxus liukiuensis f. glabra; Buxus liukiuensis var. longipedicellata; Buxus microphylla var. liukiuensis; Buxus sempervirens var. liukiuensis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Buxaceae
Described by
(Makino) Makino
Native to
Nansei-shoto, Taiwan
Wild records
145 in range · 55 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 26.00_131.250, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (4% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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