Shrubs or small trees, 0.15-6 m tall, evergreen, monoecious. Young branches tetragonous. Leaves opposite, shortly petiolate, leathery or thinly leathery, often shining, margin entire, venation pinnate. Inflorescences axillary or terminal, racemose, spicate, or converted into capitate cluster, bracteate; female flower solitary, apical, male flowers several, basal. Flowers small, unisexual. Male flowers: tepals 4; stamens 4; central pistillode present. Female flowers: tepals 5 or 6; carpels 3; ovary 3-locular; styles 3, free; stigma often decurrent; interstylar nectaries or nectariferous tissue present; ovules 2 per locule, pendent, anatropous, bitegmic, crassinucellar; micropyle formed by inner integument, rudimentary aril. Fruit a dry capsule, globose or ovoid, usually glabrous, loculicidal, splitting into 3 valves; styles persistent. Seeds 2 per locule, oblong; testa black, shining; endosperm fleshy; cotyledons oblong.

The following taxa have been described or recorded from Taiwan but are not treated here because we were unable to examine any material:

Buxus liukiuensis (Makino) Makino (Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 16: 179. 1902; B. sempervirens Linnaeus var. liukiuensis Makino, Bot. Mag. (Tokyo) 9: 279. 1895; B. microphylla Siebold & Zuccarini var. liukiuensis (Makino) S. S. Ying). This taxon was recorded from Taiwan by Yang and Lu (Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 3: 666-668. 1993), who erroneously treated it as endemic (the type is from Ishigaki-jima, Ryukyu Islands, Japan) and included in its synonymy B. liukiuensis var. longipedicellata Hatusima (J. Dept. Agric. Kyushu Imp. Univ. 6: 293. 1942), which was described from "Syusyu Nanto" (Shuishe, Nantou), Taiwan.

Buxus microphylla Siebold & Zuccarini var. tarokoensis S. Y. Lu & Yuen P. Yang (Fl. Taiwan, ed. 2, 3: 668. 1993). This taxon was described from an elevation of 1800 m in the Taroko gorge, Hualian, Taiwan.

About 100 species: Africa, America, Asia, Europe; 17 species (15 endemic) in China.