Taxus baccata 'English Yew'

[Ex. Co. Durham, England]

Taxaceae: A very long-lived broadly conical conifer to 25m, with dense foliage. The bole of a mature may be long and twisted. The bark is reddish, often peeling to reveal reddish-brown patches beneath.  Flattened, needle-like dark glossy green leaves on slightly pendulous branches. Male and female flowers are on separate trees, the female flowers give rise to hard fruits each surrounded by a bright red fleshy aril with a depression at the tip. Native of much of Europe including Britain, North West Africa and South West Asia, preferring drier lime-rich soils. It is the subject of myths and superstitions and are very long-lived, there are many specimens growing in Britain that are well over a 1000 years old.

USES:

The raw red fruit is said to be very sweet and gelatinous, apparently some people find them delicious, care is need not to eat the seed inside the fruit, as there are highly poisonous.

The yew tree is a highly toxic plant that has occasionally been used medicinally, mainly in the treatment of chest complaints. Modern research has shown that the plants contain the substance 'taxol' in their shoots. Taxol has shown exciting potential as an anti-cancer drug, particularly in the treatment of ovarian cancers. All parts of the plant, except the fleshy fruit, are antispasmodic, cardiotonic, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, expectorant, narcotic and purgative. The leaves have been used internally in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, hiccup, indigestion, rheumatism and epilepsy. Externally, the leaves have been used in a steam bath as a treatment for rheumatism. A homeopathic remedy is made from the young shoots and the berries. It is used in the treatment of many diseases including cystitis, eruptions, headaches, heart and kidney problems, rheumatism etc. just keep in mind that the ingestion of 50-100g of needles can cause death.

GROWING INFORMATION: 

The dormancy within the seed of the Taxus species is usually very long and only broken after lengthy periods of pre-treatment. This is best achieved in the following way. First prepare a free draining medium into which the seeds are to be mixed, this can be a 50/50 mixture of compost and sharp sand, or perlite, vermiculite. The chosen medium needs to be moist (but not wet), if you can squeeze water out of it with your hand it is too wet and your seeds may drown and die.

Mix the seeds into the medium, making sure that there is enough volume of material to keep the seeds separated. Place the seed mixture into a clear plastic bag (freezer bags, especially zip-lock bags are very useful for this -provided a little gap is left in the seal for air exchange) If it is not a zip-lock type bag it needs to be loosely tied. Then write the date on the bag so that you know when the pre-treatment was started.

The seeds first require a period of warm pre-treatment and need to be kept in temperatures of around 20°C for a period of at least 24 weeks - it is not critical if it lasts a week or two longer than this. During this time make sure that the pre-treatment medium does not dry out at any stage or it will be ineffective!

Next the seeds require a cold period to break the final part of the dormancy, this is achieved by placing the bag in the fridge 4°C for around 40 weeks, again if it is for a little longer it does not matter. It is quite possible for the seeds to germinate in the bag at these temperatures when they are ready to do so, (it is worth checking the bag every few weeks for germinating seedlings) if they do, just remove them from the bag and carefully plant them up.

Seeds that are ready to germinate will have split the hard-outer case and can quickly begin to produce a root. When the pre-treatment period is completed the seed is ready to be sown.

Pots or seed trays can be used, filled with a good quality compost with the seeds sown on a firmed compost surface, covered with a thin layer of compost (up to 1cm) and watered. It is often best to remove established germinated seedlings from their containers and pot them up separately. After the first growing season do not throw away the contents of the pots and trays but leave them outside in a shady place through summer and winter and further seedlings will appear the next Spring. This process can continue for as long as 5 years with some seedlings germinating each year,- so don't give up on them too soon!

Do not expose newly sown seeds to high temperatures above 25°C otherwise a secondary dormancy may be induced and the seeds will not germinate until they have been pretreated again. Keep the seedlings well-watered and weed free.

A few months after germination developing seedlings should be fine in full sun. Growth in the first season is slow but will accelerate in the second and subsequent years and the developing young trees should be re-potted as necessary preferably during the dormant season. After perhaps 3-4 years they are ready to be planted in their permanent position.

HARVESTED: 2020

APPROX. 20+ SEEDS