Common Name: Oregon boxleaf

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

Wetland Status: TBD

General: Densely branched but creeping undershrubs 20-100 cm, often found in duff of forest floor with subterranean rhizomes and adventitious roots.

Leaves: Smooth, dark green blades, glabrous, opposite, thick, ovate, with minutely serrate margins, usually 1-2 pairs per cm, 8-27 cm long, 4-10 mm wide, glossy green above and pale beneath.

Flowers: Tiny white flowers with four petals, axillary, solitary, or in small clusters of 1-3 flowers, the petals commonly maroon, occasionally green, ovate, 1.5-2 mm long.

Fruits: Fruit is a small, 2-celled, dehiscent capsule.

Ecology: Found in mountain pine forests from 4,500-9,000 ft (1372-2743 m); flowers May-July.

Distribution: Ranges across the intermountain west from southwest Canada to New Mexico and Arizona.

Notes: Look for this low-growing ground cover in thick forests, especially near wetted areas.

Ethnobotany: Plant used as an emetic for ceremonial use, a decoction of branches used as a cold remedy, kidney troubles, tuberculosis, and a poultice of leaves to heal broken bones, swelling, and pain. Leaves used as fodder and berries used as a food source.

Synonyms: Pachystima myrsinites

Editor: LCrumbacher, 2011

Etymology: Paxistima is taken from the Greek pachys, meaning thick, stout, and stigma, meaning stigma. Myrsinites may have multiple roots, thought to arise from the genus Myrsine and the suffix "ites" meaning belonging to or having to do with.