The monoecious flowers are inconspicuous but highly scented, greenish-yellow, with no petals, and are insect pollinated; the fruit is a three-lobed capsule containing 3-6 seeds.

[10] Box remains a very popular ornamental plant in gardens, being particularly valued for topiary and hedges because of its small leaves, evergreen nature, tolerance of close shearing, and scented foliage.

[11] In the American South, it has sometimes been called "rich man's hedge,"[12] and was often used to anchor the landscape plantings on either side of the front door of a house.

[citation needed] Several cultivars have been selected, including 'Argenteo-variegata' and 'Marginata' with variegated foliage; such "gilded box" received a first notice in John Parkinson's Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terrestris (1629).

[16] The following varieties and cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:- A pest which spreads through Buxus sempervirens is Cydalima perspectalis, the box tree moth.

[20] Slow growth of box renders the wood ("boxwood") very hard (possibly the hardest in Europe along with Cornus mas) and heavy, and free of grain produced by growth rings, making it ideal for cabinet-making, the crafting of flutes and oboes, engraving, marquetry, woodturning, tool handles, mallet heads and as a substitute for ivory; the wood is yellow in color.

[28] It then was used to treat gout, urinary tract infections, intestinal worms, chronic skin problems, syphilis, hemorrhoids, epilepsy, headache and piles,[29] but also had the reputation of curing leprosy, rheumatism, HIV, fever and malaria.

During late 1980s, Dildar Ahmed while working on his PhD thesis under the supervision of Prof Atta-ur-Rahman, isolated a number of steroidal alkaloids from the leaves of the plant.