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Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is an Old World species of evergreen tree in the family Taxaceae. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it is sometimes called common yew, European yew, or, in North America, English yew. It is a woodland tree in its native range, including much of Eurasia and Northwest Africa. All parts of the plant except the fleshy aril are poisonous, with toxins that can be absorbed through inhalation, ingestion, and transpiration through the skin.
The wood has been prized for making longbows and for musical instruments such as lutes. Yews are often grown as ornamental trees, hedges or topiaries, including in churchyards, where they sometimes reach great age; many explanations have been given for this planting, especially that the yew is associated with death, immortality, and rebirth. Multiple place names derive from the Proto-Celtic *eburos, but scholars disagree as to whether this meant the yew tree.
The species Taxus baccata was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum. The name remains accepted, despite the many descriptions by later taxonomists, resulting in 108 synonyms. Linnaeus created the generic name Taxus, perhaps from the Greek toxon, a bow.
The word yew is from Old English īw, ēow, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-, via Proto-Germanic *iwo, which also gave rise to Celtic forms such as Old Irish ēo, Welsh ywen. It became Old English iw, eow and Middle English eu. Baccata is Latin for 'bearing berries'.
Yews are small to medium-sized evergreen trees, growing up to 10–20 metres (35–65 ft) or exceptionally 28 m (92 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 2 m (6+1⁄2 ft) or exceptionally 4 m (13 ft) in diameter. The bark is thin, scaly reddish-brown, and comes off in small flakes aligned with the stem. The leaves are flat, dark green, 1–4 centimetres (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) long, 2–3 millimetres (1⁄16–1⁄8 in) broad, and arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows on either side of the stem, except on erect leading shoots where the spiral arrangement is more obvious.
The seed cones are modified, each cone containing a single seed, which is 4–7 mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long and almost surrounded by a fleshy scale which develops into a soft, bright red berry-like aril. The aril is 8–15 mm (5⁄16–9⁄16 in) long and wide and open at the end. The arils mature 6 to 9 months after pollination.
The aril is gelatinous and very sweet tasting. The male cones are globose, 3–6 mm (1⁄8–1⁄4 in) in diameter, and shed their pollen in early spring. Yews are mostly dioecious with male and female cones on separate trees, but occasional individuals can be variably monoecious, or change sex with time.
The yew is native to all countries of Europe (except Iceland), the Caucasus, and beyond from Turkey eastwards to northern Iran. Its range extends south to Morocco and Algeria in North Africa, and parts of Southwest and South Asia. A few populations are present in the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. The limit of its northern Scandinavian distribution is its sensitivity to frost, with global warming predicted to allow its spread inland. It has been introduced elsewhere, including the United States.
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Taxus baccata
Taxus baccata is an Old World species of evergreen tree in the family Taxaceae. It is the tree originally known as yew, though with other related trees becoming known, it is sometimes called common yew, European yew, or, in North America, English yew. It is a woodland tree in its native range, including much of Eurasia and Northwest Africa. All parts of the plant except the fleshy aril are poisonous, with toxins that can be absorbed through inhalation, ingestion, and transpiration through the skin.
The wood has been prized for making longbows and for musical instruments such as lutes. Yews are often grown as ornamental trees, hedges or topiaries, including in churchyards, where they sometimes reach great age; many explanations have been given for this planting, especially that the yew is associated with death, immortality, and rebirth. Multiple place names derive from the Proto-Celtic *eburos, but scholars disagree as to whether this meant the yew tree.
The species Taxus baccata was first described in 1753 by Carl Linnaeus in his Species Plantarum. The name remains accepted, despite the many descriptions by later taxonomists, resulting in 108 synonyms. Linnaeus created the generic name Taxus, perhaps from the Greek toxon, a bow.
The word yew is from Old English īw, ēow, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁eyHw-, via Proto-Germanic *iwo, which also gave rise to Celtic forms such as Old Irish ēo, Welsh ywen. It became Old English iw, eow and Middle English eu. Baccata is Latin for 'bearing berries'.
Yews are small to medium-sized evergreen trees, growing up to 10–20 metres (35–65 ft) or exceptionally 28 m (92 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 2 m (6+1⁄2 ft) or exceptionally 4 m (13 ft) in diameter. The bark is thin, scaly reddish-brown, and comes off in small flakes aligned with the stem. The leaves are flat, dark green, 1–4 centimetres (1⁄2–1+1⁄2 in) long, 2–3 millimetres (1⁄16–1⁄8 in) broad, and arranged spirally on the stem, but with the leaf bases twisted to align the leaves in two flat rows on either side of the stem, except on erect leading shoots where the spiral arrangement is more obvious.
The seed cones are modified, each cone containing a single seed, which is 4–7 mm (3⁄16–1⁄4 in) long and almost surrounded by a fleshy scale which develops into a soft, bright red berry-like aril. The aril is 8–15 mm (5⁄16–9⁄16 in) long and wide and open at the end. The arils mature 6 to 9 months after pollination.
The aril is gelatinous and very sweet tasting. The male cones are globose, 3–6 mm (1⁄8–1⁄4 in) in diameter, and shed their pollen in early spring. Yews are mostly dioecious with male and female cones on separate trees, but occasional individuals can be variably monoecious, or change sex with time.
The yew is native to all countries of Europe (except Iceland), the Caucasus, and beyond from Turkey eastwards to northern Iran. Its range extends south to Morocco and Algeria in North Africa, and parts of Southwest and South Asia. A few populations are present in the archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira. The limit of its northern Scandinavian distribution is its sensitivity to frost, with global warming predicted to allow its spread inland. It has been introduced elsewhere, including the United States.