Yew
One of the longest living native species of Europe, frequently planted in graveyards and highly toxic, yet revered and loved by many.
Category: Taxaceae
Yew family
Size
6 genera, 30 species; also, 2 extinct genera.
Notable genera:
- Common Yew (Taxus)
Key features
- Many-branched, small trees and shrubs.
- Leaves are evergreen, spirally arranged, often twisted at the base to appear 2-ranked.
- Leaves are linear to lanceolate, and have pale green or white stomatal bands on the undersides.
- The plants are dioecious, rarely monoecious.
- The male cones are 2–5 mm long, and shed pollen in the early spring.
- The female ‘cones’ are highly reduced to a single seed.
- As the seed matures, a fleshy aril partly encloses it. The developmental origin of the aril is unclear, but it may represent a fused pair of swollen leaves.