Florida Yew

(Taxus floridana)

Color Photograph: © by and courtesy of Roger Carter, Valdosta State University

Florida Yew (Taxus floridana)

Identifying Characters: The only yew species in Florida.

Similar Species: See above.

Measurements: A shrub or bushy tree about 18 feet tall and 1 foot in diameter.

Seed Cones: Seeds about 0.25 inches long, elliptical, blunt-pointed, brown, and angulate; seed nearly completely enclosed by a red, cup-shaped receptacle about 0.4 inches in diameter; seed cones scattered and single on leafy twigs.

Needles: Needles between 0.75 and 1 inch in length; color dark green above, pale below; needles with a distinct petiole.

Bark: Bark dark purple-brown, smooth, sometimes separating into large, thin, irregular plates.

Native Range: Florida Yew is a very rare species restricted to the river bluffs and ravines on the banks of the Apalachicola River in Panhandle region of Florida.

Habitat: See above.