Taxus baccata
English yew · also Common yew, European yew, Irish yew
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Taxus baccata, commonly known as English Yew, is a densely branching evergreen conifer with dark green foliage and distinctive red, fleshy arils around its poisonous seeds. It is a long-lived woodland tree often found on calcareous soils in its native range across Eurasia and Northwest Africa. Valued for its ornamental qualities, it is frequently used in urban settings for hedges and topiary, though it is intolerant of poor soils and extreme temperatures.
Where it grows
Trees in each city's inventory, with the share of that city's named trees this species accounts for.
- 8,6000.76%—3.8 in
- 2,8941.3%—12 in
- 1,3900.49%57 yr5.9 in
- 3450.26%—8.0 in
- 2100.05%37 yr9.8 in
- 1390.08%—12 in
- 1290.05%—5.1 in
- 820.17%10 yr—
- 630.01%—7.5 in
- 560.16%—11 in
- 430.04%23 yr17 in
- 190.01%—3.0 in
- 90.01%—11 in
- 60.04%—11 in
- 50.01%—2.0 in
- 40.00%—7.5 in
- 20.03%——
Traits
- Form
- Conifer
- Foliage
- Evergreen
- Mature height
- 25–50 ft
- Canopy spread
- 15–25 ft
- Lifespan
- 2000 years
- Growth rate
- Moderate
- Soil
- Chalk, Limestone, Calcareous
- Water needs
- Moderate
- Wildlife value
- Moderate
Trunk diameters across every city: median 5.8 in, mean 7.3 in, 90th percentile 15 in. Measured at breast height, as published by each inventory.
Native range
Terrestrial ecoregions where this species is native. Trees in the dataset mostly stand well outside it.
Temperate Broadleaf & Mixed Forests
- Azores temperate mixed forests
- Baltic mixed forests
- Central European mixed forests
- East European forest steppe
- Eastern Anatolian deciduous forests
- European Atlantic mixed forests
- Western European broadleaf forests
Temperate Conifer Forests
- Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests
Other Taxus in the catalogue
7 of the top 2,000 species are in this genus.
