Introduction to and Main Characteristics of Taxus (Yew) Plants

Latin scientific name: Taxus L.

English name: Yew

Introduction:

Trees, with bark splitting into thin flakes and shedding. Branchlets irregularly alternate. Leaves spirally arranged, twisted at the base into two ranks, linear, lanceolate-linear, or linear-lanceolate, with the midrib raised on the upper surface and two pale yellow or pale grayish-green stomatal bands on the lower surface, without resin canals. Dioecious; cone flowers solitary in leaf axils; male cone flowers globose, stalked, with 6-14 stamens, peltate, anthers 4-9, radially arranged; female cone flowers nearly sessile, with a disc-shaped aril. Seeds nut-like, maturing in the same year, borne in a cup-shaped fleshy aril, the aril red; cotyledons 2, emerging above ground at germination.

About 11 species, native to the Northern Hemisphere. China has 4 species and 1 variety.

The wood is fine-grained, tough and durable, making it a valuable timber tree species; it grows slowly and yields little, mostly scattered in forests, and should be protected and its afforestation expanded. The leaves are dark green and the fleshy aril is red, quite ornamental, and it can be used as a garden tree.