Botanical Name: Taxus baccata
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Common Name: English Yew  
Plant photo of: Taxus baccata
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Water Saving Tip:

In general, lawns only need to be watered once every three days.

Check your irrigation controller and reduce watering times if necessary.

  • Anatomy

  • Culture

  • Design

Plant Type

Tree, Shrub

 

Height Range

6-12', 12-25', 25-40'

 

Flower Color

White

 

Flower Season

Spring

 

Leaf Color

Dark Green

 

Bark Color

Brown, Red

 

Fruit Color

Red

 

Fruit Season

Fall

Information by: Stephanie Duer
Photographer:
  • Description

  • Notes

English yew is a slow growing evergreen that will eventually reach 30 feet tall and 15 feet wide, though this will take a very long time. This is the yew so popular in English topiary gardens and as hedges. Here, with our hot dry summers, it probably will never attain that stature. Lustrous, flat-needled, dark green foliage is attractive year round. Young shoots emerge light green. Although classified as a conifer, female yews (plants are dioecious) do not produce cones, but instead produce red, attractive, berry-like fruits, each having a single seed almost completely surrounded by a fleshy red aril. Birds will feed on the berry-like fruits; fruits are toxic to humans.