Taxus occurs as genus of yews, small coniferous trees or shrubs in the yew family Taxaceae. It is comparatively slow growing & may be super long-lasting, & email heights of One-40 m, using trunk diameters of as much as Iv m. It use cherry bark, lanceolate, flat, dark-green leaves 1-4 cm hanker & 2-Three millimetre broad, intended spirally on a stem, however by owning a leaf bases twisted to align the leaves around two flat rows either side of the stem.

A seed cones are highly modified, to each one cone containing one seed 4-7 mm hanker partially surrounded by the limited shell which develops into the easy, brilliantly red berry-like structure known as an aril, 8-15 mm yearn & wide & open at a prevent. A arils come matured 6-9 months fallowing pollenation, & by owning a seed contained come eaten by thrushes, waxwings and more birds, which disperse a protective seeds undamaged in their dung; maturation of the arils is cover Two-Three months, increasing the chances of successful seed diffusion. A male cones come spherical, Three-6 millimetre across, & shed their pollen in early spring. Yews come mostly dioecious, but occasional people may be variably monoecious, or vary sex by having instance.

A lot of a yews may be closely related every more, & a select few plant scientist deal with the babies altogether when race or even varieties of merely a single far flung metal money; under this coarse of action, the mintage title utilized is Taxus baccata, a number one yew described scientifically.

A virtually all distinct is the Sumatran Yew (T. sumatrana, indigene from either Sumatra and Celebes north to southernmost China), distinguished by its sparse, sickle-falcate yellow-green leaves. A Mexican Yew (T. globosa, native to eastern Mexico south to Honduras) is also comparatively distinct using foliage medium between Sumatran Yew & a more coinage. A Florida Yew, Mexican Yew & Pacific Yew come 100% uncommon mintage employed every bit threatened or even endangered.

Everthing mintage of yew contain a extremely poisonous alkaloid taxine, with a select few variation in a accurate formula of the alkaloid between the mintage. A lot area of a tree except a arils contain the alkaloid. A arils come comestible & sweet, however a seed is hazardously poisonous; unlike birds, the human stomach can weaken a seed coat & release a taxine into a person. This could develop calamitous final result whenever yew 'berries' come eaten while forgoing removing a seeds foremost. Grazing beast, particularly cattle and horses, are likewise every now and again detected dead touching yew trees when eating a leaves, though deer are able to weaken a poisons & may eat yew foliage freely. In the uncivilized, cervid browsing of yews is typically thus extensive that uncivilized yew trees come usually restricted to drop-off & more steep slopes unprocurable to cervid. A foliage is too eaten per larvae of some Lepidopteran insects including Willow Beauty.

Uses and traditions
Yew wood is reddish brown (by using whiten sapwood), & is very tough. It was traditionally utilized to produce bows, especially the longbow. Ötzi, the Chalcolithic mummy found in 1991 in the Austrian alps, carried an bare longbow mass produced of yew wood. Consequently, these are non surprising that, inside Norse mythology, the god of the bow, Ullr's abode had a title Ydalir (Yew dales). Virtually all longbow wood utilized inside northern Europe was imported from either Iberia, where climatical conditions come better for growing a knot-absolutely free! yew wood compulsory. A Eihwaz rune ᛇ is named fallowing a yew, & every now and again as well associated sustaining a "evergreen" World tree, Yggdrasil.

Foliage of Irish Yew; note the leaves spreading all round the erect shoots Yews come widely utilized around landscaping & decorative horticulture. On top 400 cultivars of yews have been known as, a brobdingnagian majority one existence from either European Yew, Japanese Yew & a hybrid between the babies (Taxus ten media). A virtually all popular one come a "Irish Yew" (Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata'), a fastigiate cultivar of the European Yew, & the many variants using yellow leaves, put together called golden yew.

A Pacific Yew Taxus brevifolia, indigene to the Pacific Northwest of North America, is the source of paclitaxel, a chemotherapeutic drug used around breast and lung cancer. Across-harvesting of the Pacific Yew for this drug has resulted within it becoming an endangered species, though a drug is at present produced semi-synthetically from either cultivated yews, forgoing a want to farther endanger the untamed populations. More yew coinage contain similar compounds by owning similar biochemical activity. Docetaxel, an analogue of paclitaxel, is from either a Taxus baccata.

A yew tree occurs as frequent symbol in the Christian poetry of T. S. Eliot, especially his Four Quartets.

da:Taks (Taxus) de:Eiben eo:taksuso fr:If (Botanique) ja:イチイ nl:Taxus pl:Cis (drzewo)