Tag Archives: Yew

Fit to bursting

05 Sunday Mar 2023

Posted by in flowers, trees

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I was checking this Yew tree for galls – found none – but it was absolutely covered in flower buds that were almost literally about to burst open. A few more days and this male tree will be spreading a sea of yellow pollen all around anytime the wind blows or someone brushes against its branches. How do I know it’s a male tree? Well, in a previous post, Flowering Yew trees from way back in March 2016, I blogged about Yew flowers so, if you want to know more about these fascinating trees, just click on that link.

230305 yew flowers

Galls: Taxomyia taxi

09 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by in insects, trees

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My Field Studies Council Guide to plant galls in Britain explains that the gall midge Taxomyia taxi actually causes two types of gall on Yew trees. The least common, which looks just like a swollen bud, completes its life cycle in one year – I’ve yet to find any of these. But I was very pleased earlier this week to locate several examples of the artichoke gall, in which the same midge completes a two-year life cycle. Eggs are laid in May/June, the larvae crawl in to a leaf bud and stay there, barely growing, until the following summer. At that point, they grow rapidly, over-winter again as larvae, before pupating and hatching the following May. I couldn’t find any explanation for the different life cycles.

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Not wanting to kill the creatures inside, I haven’t opened up any of the galls I’ve found but, if you’re curious, as I was, about what’s inside the artichoke, the Plant Parasites of Europe website has some excellent images of the larva, the pupa and the adult fly.

345/365 Yew berries

11 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in nature, trees, winter

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If the two large Yew trees I passed on my way to the library this morning were not growing on a main road, I’m sure their copious quantities of red berries would all have been scoffed by now by hungry winter thrushes.

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And if the berries last a while longer and the weather gets colder, they still might be, the birds forced to brave the passing traffic and pedestrians in search of nourishing food.

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The stones inside those juicy red berries (which are more correctly named arils) are poisonous to most creatures but they pass right through a bird’s digestive system so the bird remains unharmed.

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In fact, birds are essential to the growth and spread of Yew trees – their digestive system helps to weaken the seed’s tough coating, which enables it to sprout, and birds are the main dispersal agents for Yew seeds.

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We humans should never eat the seeds, however, as our stomach acids are strong enough to break down the seed coating, thereby releasing the taxanes (the poisonous alkaloids) into our bodies.

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