African boxwood
Myrsine africana
Family · Primulaceae · Harmless
The low dense shrub with small hard leaves covering slopes and crater rims in the Azores, which at first glance everyone takes for box.
Scrubland · Uplands · Oak woods
Also known ascape myrtle, African boxwood
How to tell it
A shrub half a metre to two metres, much branched and stiff. Small alternate leaves, one to two centimetres, leathery, with a few sharp teeth on the upper half and translucent dots against the light. Minute reddish flowers pressed to the branch. Small purplish blue berries. Range: the Azores, plus Africa and Asia.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No relevant use. It matters for a curious reason: it is the same species that grows in South Africa and the Himalayas, and its presence in the Azores is one of the archipelago's biogeographic puzzles.