Yew - Taxus baccata

Description

Tree or bush to 20 metres, bark reddish brown and flaking, leaves shiny dark green narrow and pointed, in two rows. Flowers green, males with many yellow stamens, the female solitary or two together. Fruit enveloped in a fleshy aril, red.

Several cultivars are commonly planted, especially in churchyards.  The Irish Yew has a dense upright (fastigiate) form with dark-green leaves, and is very common.  Other cultivars may have yellowish or golden-tinged foliage, or much shorter leaves, or pendulous shoots.  

Identification difficulty
Habitat

Various locations, usually only individual plants.

When to see it

all year

Life History

Evergreen.

UK Status

Fairly frequent throughout Britain.

VC55 Status

Fairly frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 138 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Irish Yew, Yew
Species group:
Trees, Shrubs & Climbers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Pinales
Family:
Taxaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
204
First record:
11/05/1992 (John Mousley;Steve Grover)
Last record:
11/03/2024 (Alton, John)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

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