Shade Happens. Procumbens Prevails.
One of the only temperate Buxaceae family members worth talking about besides Sarcococca sp. (and I will fight you with my whole chest defending that argument) is our native, creeping evergreen groundcover, Pachysandra procumbens. Endemic to Mid-Atlantic woodlands and aptly called Allegheny spurge, Pachysandra procumbens is often overlooked for its more dense, vigorously growing Japanese cousin, Pachysandra terminalis. You may be familiar with Japanese spurge, as most people are, primarily due to everybody’s grandmother planting it back in the 70’s, allowing it to live long and prosper throughout suburbia for the last half a century.
