The Female Yew Tree

It's October here in the UK and the female Yew tree (Taxus Baccata) is spectacularly vibrant with her berries flourishing amongst lushious green foliage.

The yew tree is a beautiful evergreen with seemingly varied shades of dense green foliage. Yew can be seen all year around and provides a great habitat for many nesting birds. The bark is a reddish brown colour which entails many crevices and peelings - creating safe environments for an array insects.

Unlike many pine needle trees found in the UK, the YEW is extremely TOXIC & will likely cause fatality if any consitent part, such as the leaves, root or bark are ingested.

Yew's toxicity should still be noted as leaf litter on the ground - animals such as livestock and horses could be intoxicated if they consume the dead needles.

EXCEPTION! For a very pleasant surprise during late summer and autumn, the female trees produce bright red fleshy 'arils' that look like a berry - the flesh alone is edible & deliciously sweet. The seed is poisonous!

We recommend to leave Yew alone but if you were to forge arils - peel the fleshy part of the aril from the centre pip/seed to avoid accidental consumption or damage to the toxic seed.

From May to August, the yew tree is also well known for being home to the famous 'chicken of the woods' mushroom. Mushroom foragers cry out in disappointment upon sight of this as it is said that the toxins from the yew tree are carried over to the mushroom, rendering it poisonous and to be left for nature. This includes possible toxins in mushrooms found beneath and around the tree.

'Chicken of the woods' grwoing on an Oak tree.

How to identify

Leaves are straight or sometimes slightly curved stems with small, straight, pointed tip needles growing on either side of the stem. The needles are dark green on top and a greyish green on the underside.

The trunk is usually large and gnarely with peeling bark. Some variaties of the tree will have trunks that split off.

The fruits are red, appearing as fleshy berries, known as an aril - encasing a large dark pip.

Where to find

The yew tree is found all across the UK and predominantly in Southern England. Yew can be found in fields, hedgerows and as ornamental features although they are most commonly noticed in church yards.

Folklore/mythology

It is said that Yew trees were planted on the graves of vicitms of the plague to protect and help purify them in afterlife. Another theory is that thy were planted on churchyards to prevent 'commoners' from grazing their cattle as the yew tree is toxic to livestock.

Whilst the flesh of the berry is edible, the toxicity of the pip and remainder of the tree see's these fruits left well alone by even experienced foragers.

That being said, the Yew produces very strong timber and does make some pretty looking hedging.

Uses

If you're going to try it we recommend you do your own research first and then please consume with caution & only after a you complete a tolerance test.

https://starieoutdoors.com/a-brief-look-into-the-law-and-conduct-of-foraging

Happy foraging!

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