Paxistima myrsinites (Pursh) Rafin.

More info for the terms: cover, frequency, habitat type, shrubs, succession, wildfire

The development of Oregon boxwood cover following wildfire and clearcutting/
broadcast burning has been recorded for western larch (Larix
occidentalis) and Douglas-fir forests in Montana [47]. Oregon boxwood
appears to have a varied response to both wildfire and broadcast
burning, depending on site [8,16,47]. Stickney tracked first decade
postfire succession following a severe fire in western hemlock/
Oregon boxwood habitat type. Oregon boxwood exhibited a steady-state frequency
pattern throughout the decade, with little expansion or reduction in
distribution within the study site [48,49]. Some have classified
Oregon boxwood as "neutral" in its resistance to fire, meaning that it has
less than a 12.5 percent frequency increase or decrease when compared to
average frequencies of those shrubs in unburned areas [53].

Oregon boxwood

paxistima

pachistima

myrtle boxwood

boxwood

mountain-lover

Montana-box

mountain-box

myrtle-bush

myrtle-boxleaf

false-box

myrtle pachistima

The degree to which Oregon boxwood provides environmental protection during one or more seasons for wildlife species has been rated as follows [14]:
MT UT WY Pronghorn --- poor --- Elk poor poor --- Mule deer poor poor --- White-tailed deer --- --- poor Small mammals poor fair --- Nongame birds poor fair --- Upland game birds poor fair --- Waterfowl --- poor ---

More info for the terms: capsule, cool-season, fruit, shrub

Oregon boxwood is a native, cool-season, evergreen shrub, with maroon flowers [24]. It is low growing, reaching heights of 1 to 3 feet (0.3-1 m), sometimes spreading, and densely branched. Its leaves are oblong and glabrous. Its fruit is a one- to two-seeded capsule [40,52].

Oregon boxwood occurs from British Columbia south into California and Mexico and east through the Rocky Mountains [24,52].

More info for the terms: root crown, seed

Following fire, Oregon boxwood can sprout from buds on the taproot or from the root crown [10,35,42]. Some seedling establishment via short-term viablity seed stored on-site may also occur [49].

More info for the terms: fuel, fuel loading

Nalley [41] developed models for predicting fuel loading in western redcedar/Oregon boxwood types in northern Idaho. Brown [6] lists bulk densities of some Montana and Idaho habitat types (in which Oregon boxwood is an indicator) for determining fuel depth. Fuel loadings and fire ratings for quaking aspen/Oregon boxwood community types have also been listed [7].

More info on this topic.

More info for the term: phanerophyte

RAUNKIAER [44] LIFE FORM:
Phanerophyte

Oregon boxwood grows on dry to moist sites in shaded mountain areas as high as subalpine habitats, but can be found at sea level in California [29,31]. It can grow in frost pockets in steep ravines or in open woods, ridgetops, and glades [12,22,28,29]. Oregon boxwood can occur on well-drained, shallow, gravelly soils, in clay and silt loams, and cobbly clay [22]. In British Columbia Oregon boxwood occurs on Podzols and Regosols [36].

Elevational ranges have been listed for some western states and provinces [2,14,36,39,52]:

from 5,000 to 10,500 feet (1,524-3,200 m) in Utah from 6,600 to 11,000 feet (2,012-3,353 m) in Colorado from 6,700 to 9,500 feet (2,042-2,896 m) in Wyoming from 3,500 to 7,600 feet (1,067-2,317 m) in Montana from 6,900 to 8,200 feet (2,103-2,499 m) in Idaho from 6,000 to 10,000 feet (1,829-3,048 m) in Arizona/New Mexico from 4,020 to 5,160 feet (1,279-1,600 m) in California/Oregon from 3,950 to 4,950 feet (1,200-1,500 m) in British Columbia

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This species is known to occur in the following ecosystem types (as named by the U.S. Forest Service in their Forest and Range Ecosystem [FRES] Type classification):

ECOSYSTEMS [18]:




FRES20 Douglas-fir

FRES22 Western white pine

FRES23 Fir - spruce

FRES25 Larch

FRES26 Lodgepole pine

FRES28 Western hardwoods

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This species is known to occur in association with the following plant community types (as classified by Küchler 1964):

More info for the terms: forest, woodland

KUCHLER [30] PLANT ASSOCIATIONS:




K001 Spruce - cedar - hemlock forest

K002 Cedar - hemlock - Douglas-fir forest

K004 Fir - hemlock forest

K005 Mixed conifer forest

K007 Red fir forest

K008 Lodgepole pine - subalpine forest

K011 Western ponderosa forest

K012 Douglas-fir forest

K013 Cedar - hemlock - pine forest

K014 Grand fir - Douglas-fir forest

K015 Western spruce - fir forest

K018 Pine - Douglas-fir forest

K019 Arizona pine forest

K020 Spruce - fir - Douglas-fir forest

K021 Southwestern spruce - fir forest

K023 Juniper - pinyon woodland

More info for the term: duff

Oregon boxwood can survive low- to moderate-severity fires that do not consume the duff or raise the soil temperature too high [10]. It can, however, be killed by severe fires [9].

Oregon boxwood is considered important forage for deer, elk, and moose [9,13,19,43,56]. Mountain sheep and grouse also browse Oregon boxwood [52]. Livestock occasionally eat Oregon boxwood, but it is not considered an important forage species [52,56].

More info for the terms: association, forest, habitat type, shrub, shrubland

Oregon boxwood is a dominant shrub in many forested and shrubland community
types, habitat types, and plant associations throughout western North America.
Some associates of Oregon boxwood include Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii),
Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa),
white fir (A. concolor), red fir (A. magnifica), hemlock (Tsuga
spp.), western redcedar (Thuja plicata), lodgepole pine (Pinus
contorta), Gambel oak (Quercus gambelii), golden chinquapin (Chrysolepis
chrysophylla), Port-Orford-cedar (Chamaecyparis lawsoniana), quaking
aspen (Populus tremuloides), Rocky Mountain maple (Acer glabrum),
mountain snowberry (Symphoricarpos oreophilus), bunchberry dogwood (Cornus
canadensis), huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.), mallow ninebark (Physocarpos
malvaceus), lupine (Lupinus spp.), mountain sweetroot (Osmorhiza
chilensis), queencup beadlily (Clintonia uniflora), heartleaf arnica
(Arnica cordifolia), columbine (Aquilegia spp.) groundsel (Senecio
spp.), meadowrue (Thalictrum spp.), and pinegrass (Calamagrostis
rubescens) [2,13,22,25,26,34,36,39].

Publications listing Oregon boxwood as an
indicator are listed below.

 Area  Classification  Reference
CO: White River-Arapaho NF  forest and shrubland habitat types Hess and Wasser 1982
ID: Caribou, Targhee NF forest community types Mueggler and Campbell 1982
BC: Similkameen Valley  forest community types McLean 1970
northern UT forest habitat type Mauk and Henderson 1984 
OR: Wenema NF   forest plant association Hopkins 1979b
CO: Gunnison, Uncompahgre NF forest habitat type Komarkova 1986
CO: White River NF  forest habitat type Hoffman and Alexander 1983
CO: Routt NF  forest habitat type Hoffman and Alexander 1980
WA: Okanogan NF  forest plant association Williams and Lillybridge 1983
eastern WA, northern ID  forest habitat types Daubenmire and Daubenmire

1968

More info for the term: shrub

Shrub

More info for the terms: cover, shrubs

Oregon boxwood is not easily controlled with herbicides, possibly because of
its leathery, evergreen leaves [3,21,37].



Oregon boxwood appears to increase in logged areas compared to uncut areas
in grand fir (Abies grandis) types of western Montana [1]. In general,
Oregon boxwood seems to increase following logging; however, it may not
really benefit from management treatments because undisturbed shrubs may
have the same growth rate as disturbed shrubs [32]. In logged grand
fir/Oregon boxwood sites of northern Idaho, Oregon boxwood decreased for the
first 7 years, then increased after 25 years to higher cover values than
in unlogged areas [55].

Stark [46] has reported on the nutrient content of Oregon boxwood following
harvest and burn treatments in western Montana. The nutritional value
of Oregon boxwood has been rated as follows [14]:

UT WY MT
Elk fair --- poor
Mule deer fair poor ---
White-tailed deer --- fair ---
Antelope poor --- ---
Upland game bird poor poor ---
Waterfowl poor --- ---
Nongame bird poor poor ---
Small mammal poor --- ---

AR   AZ   CA   CO   ID   MT  
NM   OR   TX   UT

WA   WY   AB   BC   MEXICO

More info for the term: cover

Oregon boxwood is easily shaped and adapts well to both sunny and shady spots, making it ideal for an ornamental and ground cover [23,29,52].

The degree of use shown by livestock for Oregon boxwood has been
rated as follows [14]:

UT CO MT
Cattle poor poor poor
Sheep fair poor poor
Horse poor poor poor

More info on this topic.

The following months have been noted for budding, flowering, and fruiting of Oregon boxwood.
State Buds Flowers Fruits Source CA May-July [40] AZ, MX April-June June-Sept [52] OR, WA April-June [19] ID, MT March-May March-June July-Sept [15,42] UT April-July [14] CO May-July [14] WY June-August [14]

More info for the term: root crown

Oregon boxwood usually sprouts from its root crown or from buds on its taproot following low- to moderate-severity fires [10,42].

More info for the terms: adventitious, fire regime, shrub

POSTFIRE REGENERATION STRATEGY [33]:
Small shrub, adventitious bud/root crown

FIRE REGIMES:
Find fire regime information for the plant communities in which this species may occur by entering the species name in the FEIS home page under "Find FIRE REGIMES".

More info for the term: shrub

Oregon boxwood stems can layer and root, and the shrub can be propagated easily through stem cuttings [29]. Seeds are dispersed by gravity, with no evidence to suggest they are dispersed by any other means [42].

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This species can be found in the following regions of the western United States (according to the Bureau of Land Management classification of Physiographic Regions of the western United States):

BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS [5]:




1 Northern Pacific Border

2 Cascade Mountains

3 Southern Pacific Border

4 Sierra Mountains

5 Columbia Plateau

6 Upper Basin and Range

8 Northern Rocky Mountains

9 Middle Rocky Mountains

11 Southern Rocky Mountains

12 Colorado Plateau

13 Rocky Mountain Piedmont

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More info for the terms: climax, habitat type, phase, shrub

Oregon boxwood is an indicator species in several western habitat types and plant communities. It is a climax shrub and can tolerate both sun and shade [23], but it usually indicates dry to moist, cool sites and well-drained soils [19]. Quaking aspen/Saskatoon serviceberry (Amelanchier alnifolia)-Oregon boxwood community types in Idaho appear to be stable but may be slowly successional to quaking aspen-Douglas-fir/ Saskatoon serviceberry community types which might be in the Oregon boxwood phase of the Douglas-fir/pinegrass habitat type or the subalpine/pinegrass habitat type [39].

The currently accepted scientific name of Oregon boxwood is Paxistima
myrsinites (Pursh) Raf. (Celastraceae) [58,59].
The above synonyms are misapplied to Oregon boxwood.
Pachystima myrsinites is an exotic ornamental [51].

Oregon boxwood root cuttings or 2-0 stock can be used to revegetate disturbed sites [38].