Extra notes and interesting information:

Leaves, bark, and broken seeds are poisonous, although toxicity varies from plant to plant. Symptoms may include cardiac or respiratory failure. The poisonous substances in yew are pseudo-alkaloids known as taxines. The red aril is non-poisonous and is eaten by birds, thrushes and waxwings. Yew was often planted in church yards. This may have been done to keep cattle out as the owners did not want them eating the poisonous plants.

The Florencecourt Yew growing in County Fermanagh Northern Ireland was found as a sapling in the nearby Cuilcagh mountains by a local farmer in 1740. Later visitors to the estate found the unusual vertical shape desirable and many cuttings were taken. The plant was propagated throughout the kingdom. In 1820 the tree was commercially propagated.
Yews were used widely for bow making in England and Wales. Yew was so popular, mature trees were no longer to be found.
Yew as originally used ,means the color brown. Yew comes from the proto-German iwa.
bacatta is Latin for bearing red berries.
fastigiate means having erect branches tapering toward the top as in the Lombardy Poplar.

Other cultivars/species:

'Adpressa' a dense, spreading female shrub, with short , wide abruptly pointed leaves, to 1/2 in. long.

'Dovastonii Aurea' a small female tree with spreading branches, pendent branchlets, and yellow-margined leaves borne on golden yellow shoots.
'Rapendens' is female and spreads over the ground forming a mound; to 24 inches.

In partnership with the City of Bellevue