Evergreen yew tree. Coniferous plant without resin

Syn .: yew berry, yew European, greenery, negnyuchka, non-pus, mahogany.

Yew berry is an evergreen, slow-growing coniferous tree or shrub. One of the most poisonous plants of the southern flora. The yew tree is a long-lived tree, specimens are known that have lived up to 4000 years.

Ask the experts

In medicine

The plant is toxic, but taxanes (yew alkaloids) are used to produce the anticancer drugs Paclitaxel and Docetaxel.

Also, yew berry is used in classical homeopathy for the manufacture of homeopathic medicines. These medicines are made from a tincture of fresh yew needles harvested after the fruit has ripened.

Homeopaths use Taxus baccata to treat temporal and supraorbital headaches; chronic catarrh of the throat; cough that occurs after eating; with diseases of the digestive system, which are accompanied by pain or tingling in the epigastric fossa or around the navel; cirrhosis of the liver; atonic constipation; diseases of the urinary system with difficult and poor urination; skin diseases (erysipelas, folliculitis, pustular rashes); with itching in the nose with sneezing.

Contraindications and side effects

Young shoots, bark and leaves of yew berry contain taxine (C35H47NO10) - an alkaloid that is poisonous not only to humans, but also to some domestic animals, such as horses and cows. The composition also includes the alkaloid ephedrine, which causes nervous overexcitation, increased heart rate and increased blood pressure. The glycoside taxicatin damages the mucous membrane of the gastrointestinal tract, causing poisoning and anemia. Poisons are found in all parts of the yew, except for the arillus seed. Moreover, the older the tree, the more toxic it becomes.

Symptoms of poisoning: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, general weakness, abdominal pain, drowsiness, convulsions, suffocation, impaired cardiac activity. Death can occur even within the first hour. The danger lies in the fact that the symptoms of mild yew poisoning are rather atypical and at first resemble a flu-like condition. However, if at this stage you do not consult a doctor or do not cleanse the body yourself, a fatal outcome is quite likely.

There are also cases of poisoning of some domestic animals (horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens), as well as wild goats after eating cut branches after shearing yew. The milk of lactating animals when eating yew also becomes poisonous, which can cause diseases of suckling young.

In cooking

Yew berries do not contain toxic substances and have a rather pleasant taste, but the bones (seeds) are highly toxic. Therefore, it is not recommended to use the sweet fruits of the berry yew for food purposes.

In horticulture

Yew berry winters well in the middle lane, but it is better to choose low varieties that winter under the snow. Be sure to take into account that the yew can be damaged by strong prolonged frosts, being without snow cover.

Wintering of young yew seedlings is complicated by the fragility of branches and shoots. Therefore, in late autumn, yew branches are collected in a bundle with twine or wire so that the tops of the shoots do not break off under the weight of snow. The oversnow part of the seedlings is prone to burning in the spring sun. Yew is quite shade-tolerant, prefers fertile, well-cultivated garden soil and regular watering in drought.

Berry yew tolerates shading well, but it needs good illumination not only for active vegetation, but also for seed formation.

Yew is propagated by both cuttings and seedlings.

Yew differs from other ornamental garden plants in a kind of "evergreen". The berry yew is especially beautiful in autumn - it is at this time that contrasting bright red berries look very impressive on juicy dark green needles.

In other areas

Yew is the only coniferous plant that does not contain resin. Yew wood is thin-layered, reddish-brown in color, has a very beautiful texture. The wood is very dense, hard, resilient, very well polished. Wood has strength and resistance to decay, so it is very successfully used in shipbuilding and plumbing.

Berry yew wood is used to make furniture, weapons, musical instruments and sacred objects.

Due to its special properties, yew wood was best suited for making archery bows.

Also, yew wood has a strong bactericidal effect - its phytoncides kill even microorganisms that are in the air. If at least the ceiling beams were made of yew, then during the mass epidemics of infectious diseases, the inhabitants of the house were much better protected than the inhabitants of ordinary wooden houses. In ancient Egypt, because of the same property, yew was used to make sarcophagi.

Because of its useful properties, the yew has been almost completely exterminated by man.

Yew is highly valued for its dark needles that do not change color for the winter and beautiful "berries". It goes well with both coniferous and deciduous trees, and is widely used in landscape design. Compact densely branched varieties are quite easily formed with a haircut, so yew is often used to create landscape labyrinths in European parks, for example, in Versailles.

Classification

Berry yew (lat. Taxus baccata) belongs to the genus Yew (lat. Taxus) of the Yew family (lat. Taxaceae).

Botanical description

Yew berry (lat. Taxus baccata) is a slow-growing coniferous tree or shrub with dense branching. It grows slowly, reaching a height of 2 meters in 20 years. The root system of the yew is quite well developed, so it can adapt to different conditions. Skeletal branches are horizontal or ascending obliquely upwards. The crown of the yew is ovoid, spreading, multi-topped (in a tree) or cup-shaped (in shrubs).

The bark is thin, reddish-brown in color, with peeling plates. Yew leaves are linear, flat, leathery, located on short petioles. Yews are usually dioecious. Male cones are round, solitary, sitting in the axils of the leaves on the underside of the shoot. The female generative organs are also located. The seed is surrounded by a fleshy juicy red shell - aryllus (roofing, seedling) in the form of a glass, 5-8 mm in diameter. Yew seeds ripen in the current season, fall off in autumn and are dispersed by birds. All parts of the coniferous tree, except for the arillus, are poisonous.

Spreading

Yew berry is found in Western, Central and Southern Europe (in the north it reaches Western Norway, Southern Sweden, the Aland Islands), North-West Africa, Northern Iran and South-West Asia. In Russia, yew forests are found in the Carpathians and in the mountainous areas of the Crimea, as well as in the North Caucasus in the western part. Individual yew trees are found in Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), the Kaliningrad region, as well as in the western regions of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.

Yew berry most often grows in mountain forests among firs, spruces and beeches at an altitude of up to 1400 m above sea level. Can grow on sandy, waterlogged soils, but prefers podzolized or calcareous soils. The tree is on the verge of extinction and is protected in nature reserves.

Distribution regions on the map of Russia.

Procurement of raw materials

For medicinal purposes, needles and berries of the tree are used and harvested during ripening. The collected raw materials are dried in the shade in the open air. Store dried yew in tightly closed jars in a dry place, protected from light and always separately from other medicinal plants.

Chemical composition

The yew needles contain alkaloids, taxine, ephedrine, diterpenoids, lignans, taxiresinol and its derivatives, anthocyanins, steroids, sesquiterpenoids, sequoiaflavon, ginkgetin.

Pharmacological properties

Despite the fact that yew berry is not included in the State Pharmacopoeia of the Russian Federation, it has medicinal properties and is a raw material for the pharmaceutical industry. The main active substances obtained from the poisonous parts of the plant - taxane alkaloids, are part of the cytostatic antitumor drugs ("Docetaxel", "Paclitaxel"), used to treat cancer of the lungs, all parts of the large intestine, stomach, squamous cell head / neck cancer, breast cancer. glands, prostate, ovaries, skin, as well as during hormone therapy. They are able to accumulate tubulin protein in microtubules (protein intracellular structures that make up the cytoskeleton), prevent their decay, which in turn leads to disruption of the mitosis phase (cell division) and interfacial processes in cancer cells.

Application in traditional medicine

In folk medicine, needles and wood are used as raw materials for tonic and abortive preparations. Most often, healers used an infusion of its needles, which was used externally for rheumatism, gout, skin mycosis, various dermatitis, as well as for the treatment of scabies, amenorrhea, bronchial asthma, diarrhea, bronchitis, diseases of the urinary system. Because of the deadly toxicity, yew berry preparations are not recommended by traditional healers for ingestion.

History reference

Yew forests appeared on earth about 65 million years ago. Imprints of yew shoots and needles were found in the Jurassic layers of the earth's crust. At that time, the yew tree was one of the most common on Earth, but its population has decreased due to climate change. And later, because of its strong and almost eternal wood, yew was practically exterminated by man.

In ancient times, the yew was considered the tree of death. Furies were depicted with torches made of yew branches. The Eleusinian priests adorned themselves with wreaths of yew branches.

In the treatise of the medieval scientist, philosopher and physician Avicenna "The Canon of Medicine" (1021), information was found about the yew berry Taxus baccata, as a phytotherapeutic agent used for heart diseases.

In the Natural History of Pliny the Elder, there is a description of the poisoning of a man with wine from a yew goblet.

The Fortingall yew, under whose shadow, according to legend, the childhood of Pontius Pilate passed, is considered one of the oldest in Europe and grows in Scotland.

The famous labyrinth in Britain, Hampton Court, was planted from yew - which is a living clipped hedge a little less than a kilometer long and 180 cm high.

When the yew tree was no longer enough for construction, only furniture was made from it. Due to its high cost and rarity, it was even mentioned in fairy tales and chronicles. The tables and beds often found in Russian fairy tales were made of yew. In "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" the chronicler considered it his duty to mention the yew bed of Prince Svyatoslav, on which he subsequently died, as a rare and very expensive thing that testified to the power of the prince. The yew was also used to make sacred objects in cases where the contents needed to be protected from deterioration: crosses, tabernacles and shrines for relics.

The liquid, which was in a beautiful carved goblet made of yew wood, acquired the properties of poison. A similar effect of jam from yew berries was used by Agatha Christie in the novel A Pocket Full of Rye. However, the author made an inaccuracy: if the jam was made from yew berries in accordance with all the rules, it could not cause poisoning, since the pulp of yew berries is the only non-poisonous part of the plant.

It used to be believed that even the shade of a yew tree was poisonous, so it was impossible to sleep in the shade of a yew tree. At the same time, yew was often used as a plant-amulet, since according to legend, evil spirits feared yew.

In JK Rowling's Harry Potter series, the yew also found its place in the material of Voldemort's wand, a yew with a phoenix feather core.

Literature

1. Dahl's explanatory dictionary. - 1863-1866.

2. Something about yew. State natural biospheric Caucasian reserve.

3. Berry yew - Taxus baccata L. // Poisonous animals and plants of the USSR. Ch.

4. Yew berry (Taxus baccata) // Encyclopedia of ornamental garden plants.

5. Hahnemann S. Experience of a new principle for finding the healing properties of medicinal substances with several views on the previous principles. Part 2

6. Antitumor agents of plant origin. Encyclopedia of medicines and pharmaceutical products. Radar Patent. - Instruction, application and formula.

7. Taxane // Medical Encyclopedia.

8. Taxoid preparations // Medical Encyclopedia.

Coniferous plant Yew in the photo

Yew belongs to a very valuable coniferous species. It is the only tree that can withstand full shade. It is easier than other conifers to cut, forming a crown.

In nature, 8 types of yew are known, photos and descriptions of which are presented on this page. They are all small evergreen coniferous trees and shrubs native to the temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Two types of coniferous yew plants are found in Russia, one in the Caucasus, the other in the Far East. Both are most in demand as ornamental shrubs and have many dozens of original forms.

The length of the needles is usually 2-3 cm, the width reaches 0.3 cm. Yews are single and dioecious plants belonging to the group of gymnosperms, like other conifers. But the fruits of yew are not at all like the cones of pines and firs. They look like berries, the seed of which is almost completely hidden by the fleshy pericarp.

Yew berry in the photo

Yew berry, or European, can grow as a fairly large tree or shrub. The largest yews grow in the Caucasus - up to 27 m tall. They have an ovoid-cylindrical, multi-apex, rather dense crown. The needles are dark green, shiny.

The berry is bright red, surrounding the seed to the very top.

The history of the culture of this yew has thousands of years. Currently, it has over a hundred different forms, many of which can grow with us.

The most interesting varieties of berry yew are:

Yew "Dovastoniana" in the photo

"Dovastoniana"- reaches a maximum height of 5 m. The crown is quite dense, sprawling. The form is widely known and popular all over the world. It is used in a variety of ways: singly and in the form of groups, including for curly haircuts;

"Fastigiata"- has a wide-columnar crown, reaching a height of 5 m, quite frost-resistant.

"Semperaurea"- grows in the form of a dense bush with upward shoots up to 2 m high. The needles are about 2 cm long, golden yellow. Famous and popular shape with unusual coloring. It is used for single planting, hedges;

"Compact" slow growing form with an oval or cone-shaped crown with raised branches and dark green needles. Good for small alpine slides.

Below you can find a photo and description of a yew tree of other species.

Yew capitate in the photo

Yew capitate- a tree with bare brownish-green shoots. The bark of the trunks is gray, exfoliating. Likes loose, well-drained soils. It is decorative with wide dark green needles, shiny above, below - with two light stripes. Well cuttings.

Yew pointed, or Far Eastern, grows in the mountains of the Far East and on Sakhalin in the form of a tall (up to 20 m) tree and spreading shrub. It has frost-resistant forms that can endure the climate of central Russia without damage. The needles of this species are 2-3 cm long and lighter than those of the yew berry, turning brown in the autumn.

For two years, it retains pale pink berries with a whitish bloom, which cover the seed only up to half of its length.

The decorative form of the pointed yew is "Nana". This is a dwarf plant with a beautiful dense crown and juicy dark green needles. Reaches 1 m in height and 3 m in crown diameter.

Canadian yew frost resistance exceeds all other species. In nature, it grows as a low shrub no more than 2 m high. The needles are rather short, 1.5-2.0 cm. Bright red berries cover most of the seed. It has decorative forms, very promising for Russia.

The middle yew occupies an intermediate position between the pointed and Canadian yew. Known for its popular decorative forms:

"Hilli"- grows in the form of a dense broad-pyramidal tree up to 5 m high with a crown diameter of up to 3 m. Very good for cutting, frost-resistant;

"Hicksey"- reaches a height of 1.5-3 m with a width of just over a meter. The crown is columnar, dense. In terms of popularity, it is not inferior to the previous form, tk. has outstanding decorative qualities and frost resistance.

Look at the photo - this yew variety is used both in sunny places and in the shade, including for hedges:

Conditions for growing yew, planting and care in the open field

For ease of care when planting a yew, you should choose a suitable place. It is advisable to immediately plant a yew tree where you will form it. It, although it tolerates transplantation well, each time reacts to this by slowing down its already weak growth rate. The older the tree, the less desirable the transplant.

When planting, the size of the hole under the plant should be commensurate with the dimensions of the future tree. For dwarf forms, a diameter and depth of 50 cm is enough, for large ones - a larger size.

When planting and caring for yews in open ground, keep in mind that different species differ somewhat in their soil preferences, but a medium loamy, high-humus, neutral or slightly alkaline reaction can be considered a universal substrate. A substrate option can be a mixture of garden loam or soddy soil and humus in a 3:1 ratio. Wood ash is added at the same time.

Video: Planting a yew berry

You should carefully approach the choice of location. The proximity of groundwater is unacceptable; protection from cold winds by buildings or relief is desirable. In this sense, the western and southern gentle slopes with the accumulation of a large amount of snow are good.

When growing and caring for a yew, remember that the tree grows very slowly for the first six to seven years. Its growth accelerates significantly after 7-8 years, when annual growths can reach 15 cm or more in height and about the same in breadth.

Plant care is to maintain soil moisture and fertility. In drought, watered once every two weeks with irrigation of the crown. It is advisable to water in the evening, then the plants will be in a useful moist atmosphere until the morning. A good technique, as for other conifers, is the mulching of the root zone.

One of the important conditions for growing yew is soil aeration. Yew loves breathable soils, so loosening should be regular. But you should not do it deeply, but only destroy the emerging crust.

In autumn, it is useful to cover the near-stem circles of plants with fallen leaves of ornamental trees. A favorable consequence of this method, in addition to improving aeration and enhancing the activity of earthworms, is an improvement in wintering conditions. Shelter of bushes in central Russia is unnecessary, except if planted too late.

Video: Yew in landscape design

A free-growing yew tree often has a sparse, uneven crown. Dense crowns have mostly decorative forms. Meanwhile, both are equally suitable for a haircut. From a squat flattened plant, you can form a "pillow". Conversely, an upwardly directed tree is more suitable for creating vertical figures. Do not get carried away by the complexity of the outlines. “Pillows”, balls, pyramids or spindle-shaped crowns look no less impressive. The main thing is that the surface of the haircut is perfectly even.

Yew has a high shoot-forming ability, so any shortening causes intensive tillering. Do not resort to heavy pruning. And then you will see with satisfaction how the crown will thicken more and more.

Yew berry, also Yew berry(lat. Táxus baccata), greenery, rotten, pus , Red tree- species of trees of the genus Yew of the Yew family ( Taxaceae). Height 10-20 m, in some cases up to 28 m. It grows slowly, while it has a long life expectancy - according to various authors, from 1.5 to 4 thousand years. One of the oldest in Europe is the Fortingell yew growing in Scotland, under the shadow of which, according to local legend, Pontius Pilate's childhood passed.

Distribution and habitat

It grows in Western, Central and Southern Europe (in the north it reaches western Norway, where the world's northernmost natural habitats of the genus Yew are located), in southern Sweden and the Aland Islands, in northwestern Africa, northern Iran and southwestern Asia.

On the territory of Russia, it is found in the western part of the North Caucasus (Caucasian Reserve, Yew-boxwood grove), Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Individual specimens and groups of yew are found in the Kaliningrad region, Belovezhskaya Pushcha (Belarus), in the western regions of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, in the Carpathians and Crimea (Chatyrdag, Belbek Canyon).

Biological description

Tree up to 27 m tall and 1.5 m in diameter, with an ovoid-cylindrical, very dense, often multi-apex crown, the bark is reddish-gray, smooth or lamellar. The kidneys are round or oval, obtuse, light brown, with a few scales. The trunk is abundantly covered with dormant buds, which can give rise to lateral shoots. Leaves (needles) 20-35 mm long, 2-2.5 mm wide, slightly curled along the edge, glabrous, dark green above, shiny, with a clear midrib, pale green below, dull.

Anther cones are solitary, in leaf axils (needles), microsporophylls with 2-8 sporangia each. Seed cones are solitary, have one straight ovule, surrounded by a roof (aryllus), which grows with seeds into an annular, fleshy, bright raspberry, sweet-tasting roller. Seeds are hard, oval, brown. Pollination in April-May.

All parts of the plant, with the exception of the aryllus, are poisonous.

Economic importance and application

Male cones of yew berry

Cross cut of a 27-year-old yew berry with a pronounced core

Mature yew seeds with bright seedlings

The bark is suitable for making glue for catching birds.

Chemical composition. Virulence

Wood, bark and leaves of yew contain terpenoids (including taxol, baccatin and taxin), steroids (sitosterol, campesterol), cyanogenic compounds (taxiphyllin), lignans, tannins, phenols and their derivatives, vitamins, flavonoids, anthocyanins, higher fatty acids and higher aliphatic alcohols. Seeds contain alkaloids (0.92%), and fleshy seeds (roofs) - 16.3% carbohydrates.

All parts of the plant, except for the roof of the seeds, are poisonous.

Wood

The wood is strong, hard, resilient, heavy, does not rot, is valued for its beauty and color (yellow-red or brownish-red, changing to purple-crimson in water), darkens over time and becomes like ebony. It is used in construction, in carpentry and turning, for finishing furniture and musical instruments, in the form of plywood.

The yew berry, which originally occupied a very large territory, was almost completely exterminated by man because of its strong and practically “eternal” wood, which has strong bactericidal properties - it kills even those microorganisms that are in the air. A house in which at least the ceiling beams are made of yew is reliably protected from pathogenic infection, which was extremely appreciated during mass epidemics.

Due to the combination of "survivability" and the viscosity of wood, yew turned out to be one of the best materials for making bows. For example, medieval English longbows were made from yew, which are considered the main weapon with which the British won victories in the Hundred Years War.

Application in park construction

Yew is a valuable park tree. So, this tree was often used to create labyrinths in French parks, large yew bosquets and trellises are available in Versailles. One of the three yew forests in Europe is located in the Killarney National Park in Ireland.

Yew is usually propagated by cuttings. Cuttings taken from branches pointing upwards give bushes with compact vertical growth, and cuttings from horizontal branches, taking root, form sprawling low plants.

Application in medicine

Yew berry is used in classical homeopathy.

Since the 1990s, yew tree alkaloids (taxanes) have been used to make anticancer drugs (paclitaxel, docetaxel).

Taxol in the experiment has cytotoxic, anti-leukemic and anti-mitotoxic properties, and is used for research purposes. Taxine is used in the UK in chemotherapy for ovarian, breast, rectal, and skin cancers.

A decoction of the seeds acts on the heart in a manner similar to that of foxglove.

Fleshy seedlings in Indian medicine are used as a tonic, gastric, expectorant, with flatulence, fresh juice as a diuretic, laxative, syrup - for lung diseases, ascites, hemorrhoids, jelly - for chronic cough, whooping cough, nephrolithiasis.

In culture

In ancient times, the yew was considered the tree of death. Furies were depicted with torches made of yew branches. The Eleusinian priests adorned themselves with wreaths of myrtle and yew branches.

The yew is mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses:

There is a path along the slope, shaded by an ominous yew,
To the hellish dwellings, she silently leads the desert.

... Priest in funeral
Clothes put on<…>
In the clothes of sorrow, the old man mournfully marches,
The yew crowns the gray hair, bringing death.

In ancient Russian literature, a mention of a yew tree can be found in the Tale of Igor's Campaign:

So night from the evening dress me, speech ( Svyatoslav), black papoloma, on the beds yew…

Probably, here the yew bed does not so much mean furniture as it serves as a symbol of the coffin.

The yew branch that was
At night, when the moon went down,
More often cut densely,

One of the ingredients of the witches' potion in the tragedy Macbeth by W. Shakespeare. The yew is also mentioned in the songs of the jester in the comedy " Twelfth Night»:

Let my earthly last refuge
Yew branches will be laid.
share my fate with me
The most devoted friend cannot.

It was believed that the shade of the yew tree is poisonous, so you can not sleep in the shade of a yew tree. The yew was often used as a talisman plant, since, according to legend, evil spirits shun the yew.

An old yew clung to a stone ...
A dead man sleeps without dreams under a stone.
The head was braided with a crown of roots,
The roots of the bones intertwined.

The yew is an important part of the landscape and in his poem "Enoch Arden":

Owls beat against the glass, a raven croaked on an old yew tree, and the wind wandered, groaning like a restless soul around the old house.

In "The Great Wheel of Returns" by William Yeats, the yew appears as part of the material for a kind of tablets -

The bard wrote on the tablets,

In which they are tightly fused,
Embraced, apple tree and yew,
All the love sagas that I knew.

Yew berries are poisonous, they poisoned the hero of Agatha Christie's novel "A Pocket Full of Rye" ("A Pocket Full of Rye"), based on which the movie "The Secret of the Blackbirds" was filmed, the berries were added to him in a can of marmalade. Yew berries also appear in another novel by the writer, The Crooked House, they poisoned the nanny.

It became the epigraph to the novel by Agatha Christie "The Rose and the Yew" ("The Rose and the Yew Tree").
In the poem by Sylvia Plath "Moon and Yew" from the collection "Ariel" -

The Gothic yew stares sharply into the sky.
Glancing over it reveals the moon.
<…>
The moon does not look here
Desert in the void.
And the yew keeps saying
Only about silence and blackness.

Yew or yew? It turns out that both names are correct. The name yew is recorded in the Russian Spelling Dictionary of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as is the Explanatory Dictionary of V. Dahl (which quotes from the epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign), and the yew appears in the Small Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron.

This gloomy plant guards the entrance to the kingdom of Hades, which the guides in the Nikitsky Botanical Garden of Yalta readily recall when they lead a group of sightseers past the administration building, at the entrance to which goblet-shaped yews rise. However, the yew was also planted in cemeteries as a symbol of overcoming death, and in the Hittite ritual text the name of the evergreen tree of life sounds like “yew”. The ancient custom of placing yew branches under the shroud of the deceased was considered a means of protecting the immortal soul of the deceased on the way to the Underworld. For the ancient Celts, the yew symbolized the change of cycles of existence - the inevitability of death and subsequent rebirth, and the Druids believed that the yew was able to overcome the boundaries of time.

Yew is a coniferous plant, surprising in a number of ways. First, it is a dioecious plant with male and female specimens. Among conifers, such a division is not common - among junipers familiar to everyone and a number of tropical representatives of the yew family. Accordingly, on male plants, golden balls (microstrobiles) are formed that carry pollen, and on female (outwardly indistinguishable) specimens, macrostrobiles are formed, inconspicuous before pollination, but acquiring decorative effect in the process of seed ripening. Yew does not form cones (which is also unusual for most conifers), instead of them, single ovules develop, dressed in a juicy seed (arillus). At first, only a low green rim appears at the base of the ovule; further, growing, it becomes fleshy, bright scarlet, covers the seed. By the time of ripening, the seedling looks like a small glass, inside of which a seed is visible. Arillus is also called roofing - the ovules growing on the branches are usually turned down, and the seed cup forms a cover over the seed that protects the germ of a new life from all climatic adversities. In the forest, the yew begins to "bear fruit" after a hundred years, in the conditions of culture - much earlier, already at the age of 20-25 (according to the dendrologists of Moscow State University).

In nature, one can sometimes observe the rooted lower branches of a yew or abundant shoots from a stump, but these trees still reproduce by seeds. Seeds ripen within a year and remain viable for another four years. The cuttings of yew twigs left (the next year after grafting) in the greenhouse with preserved pollinated ovules can also give seed offspring there. Yew seedlings grow incredibly slowly, in the forest a thirty-year-old plant does not rise above a meter, in culture (in the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University) at the same age it reaches 4 m in height.

The needles of yews are also unusual - not needle-like, like those of familiar spruce trees, which yews can look like from a distance, but flat (shiny, dark green above, matte, yellow-green below), 2-3.5 cm long, living 6- 8 years. A characteristic feature of the genus is the complete absence of resin passages in the needles.

It is extraordinary for a representative of coniferous plants that the yew is a poisonous tree in all its parts, except for the mentioned aryllus. It is said that in the Middle Ages goblets made of yew wood were considered an exquisite murder weapon, since the wine in such a goblet was saturated with poisons, and the one who drank it fell dead. Cabinetmakers who worked with yew wood (yew is one of hundreds of species classified as “mahogany”) also did not differ in longevity. The people called yew "non-rot-tree": its hard, dense, heavy wood almost does not rot, therefore it has long been one of the best materials for turning. Due to such demand, the yew was practically exterminated. British war bows were made from yew branches, and numerous detachments of English and Scottish archers served as personal guards at all the courts of Europe. It is mentioned that three English kings were killed from yew bows - William Rufus, Harold and Richard the Lionheart.

Now yew wood (listed, moreover, in various Red Books) is mainly used for artistic products due to its amazingly beautiful color - pink, red, crimson-violet to deep black, and excellent ability to polish. Accordingly, specially processed, varnished yew wood is not dangerous, but thoughtfully chewing on a decorative pencil is not worth it - what if it was carved from yew wood?

Wood, bark, shoots, needles (and the older it is, the more poisonous) and yew seeds contain alkaloids that are poisonous to humans and animals: taxine, ephedrine and taxicantin glycoside. In the early 60s, the National Cancer Institute of the United States found that the Pacific yew bark extract slows down the growth of malignant tumors, and already in 1971, the chemical substance paclitaxel, which has an original antitumor mechanism of action, was isolated from the extract. In 1986, in France, the alkaloid baccatin was isolated from the biomass of yew needles, which served as the basis for the chemical synthesis of the second taxane derivative, docetaxel. However, the content of these substances does not exceed 0.001% in plant material, and in order to carry out one course of treatment, it would be necessary to destroy a dozen hundred-year-old trees. But, fortunately, thanks to the development of biotechnological methods, a number of drugs similar to the action of paclitaxel and docetaxel have been obtained (in Moscow since 1998 in the List of Drugs - Taxol, Taxotere), and doctors and patients have hope for a cure, and the yew has the opportunity to avoid the death of a "harvested for medicinal purposes" plant.

Genus Yew(taxus) includes up to 5-8 species distributed on two continents in the warm temperate and subtropical zones of the Northern Hemisphere. This is an ancient group of plants that lived in the Jurassic. Due to the slow growth and renewal with a predatory attitude towards the use of yew wood, this tree was practically exterminated, only the names of rivers and settlements remained in memory: White and Black Tisa in Transcarpathia, Tysovets in Slovakia, Tisov on the Baltic island of Rügen.

(Taxus baccata) distributed wider than others, known throughout Western Europe, where it reaches 17 m in height, grows as an admixture in the second tier of shady broad-leaved (beech-hornbeam) or coniferous-broad-leaved forests in the mountains of North Africa, Syria, and the Azores. It occurs wild in Belovezhskaya Pushcha, Bukovina, Carpathians, Crimea, Kaliningrad region and the Caucasus. In the mountains, it usually does not rise above 1500 m above sea level, but in some places in the Caucasus it reaches the upper border of the forest, where it takes on a shrub form. Yew is demanding on air humidity. Prefers fresh, nutritious, which are often underlain by rocks rich in lime - dolomites, limestones, marls. In the Caucasus, a yew-boxwood grove near Khosta (46 hectares with a predominance of yew) and another one in the upper reaches of the Alazani River (Eastern Georgia) are known, striking the imagination with powerful old trees (up to 27 m tall). In Adjara, the largest specimen grows at 32.5 m in height. The maximum age of a yew growing in the Caucasus is 1500 years. The age of the oldest yew berry in Fortingal (Pershire, Scotland) is estimated at nine thousand years, this is truly a tree of eternity ...

Another species grows in the Far East - yew spiky (Taxuscuspidate), not much different from the European, except for the sharper tip of the leaf (needles). This species is also common in China, Korea and Japan. This is an inhabitant of the richest mixed forests that have been preserved since the Tertiary time. Yew trees do not form pure forest stands, however, in the Primorsky Territory on Petrov Island (Lazovsky Reserve), a yew grove has been preserved on an area of ​​almost a hectare.

Known in botanical gardens rarely found in landscaping canadian yew (Taxus withanadensis), growing in the undergrowth of coniferous forests on the mountain slopes of eastern North America - from Newfoundland to New Jersey, Manitoba and Iowa. Unlike other types of yew, it is a low-growing or wide-spreading shrub, barely above 1 m.

In the western part of North America - from the south of Alaska to the north of California and Montana - in the mountains at an altitude of 1500-2500 m, along the banks of rivers, in the lakeside lowlands grows short coniferous yew, or Pacific (Taxusbrevifiolia) in the form of multi-stemmed trees 5-15 m high with a dense, wide pin-shaped form. Grows as a small tree or shrub up to 7.6 m florid yew (TaxusFlorida, found only in western Florida. Both of these species are not known to us, as well as yew wallich (Taxuswallichiana), mexican yew (Taxusglobosa) and yew healing (Taxuscelebica).

Yew, in all respects a wonderful tree, has been cultivated in parks and gardens for a long time. It grows well in the southern and southwestern regions of Russia, in the conditions of Moscow and St. Petersburg it can be grown in open ground in places protected from winds and the winter sun. Due to its slow growth and easy recovery after shearing, it is used in Europe to create clipped hedges, borders, as well as living sculptures. In our conditions, such delights of topiary art are possible only in greenhouse culture. Do not forget that the workers involved in pruning yew usually suffer from headaches and dizziness ...

Galina Novitskaya, dendrologist

Department of Dendrology of the Botanical Garden of Moscow State University

Magazine "Garden & Kindergarten", No. 4, 2008

Yew (Taxus) is a genus of coniferous evergreen dioecious (rarely monoecious) trees and shrubs of the yew family (Tahaseae). With the exception of two species, yews are distributed in the northern hemisphere, where the family has an extensive but fragmented range. They are found in North America, Europe and Asia. This is one of the oldest plant families. Its history begins with the Jurassic period.

There are five genera in the family. These are yew (Tachys), torreya (Torrea), lie, or pseudotaxus (Pseudotaxus), austrotaxus (Aistrotaxus) and amentotaxus (Atentotaxus).

The genus Tahus includes eight species of dioecious or monoecious evergreen trees or shrubs. The most famous yew berry, or European, yew (Taxus baccata). Almost all trees of this species grow in specially protected forests. It is distributed throughout Western Europe, in the mountains of North Africa, Asia Minor, Syria, and the Azores. On the territory of the former USSR, it grows in Belarus (Belovezhskaya Pushcha), in Ukraine (Bukovina, Crimea and the Carpathians), in the Transcaucasus (Armenia, Georgia). In Russia - in the foothills and mountains of the North Caucasus. In the mountains, yews usually do not rise above 1500 meters above sea level (the tree is afraid of severe frosts), but in some places in the Caucasus it reaches almost the upper border of the forest and forms a shrub form there, winters under the snow, but does not bear fruit.

Most often, yew berry is found in single specimens or in small groups in the second tier of beech-hornbeam or mixed forests of beech, Caucasian fir and eastern spruce.

Yew berry- a dioecious tree, which in Central Europe grows up to 17 m tall, and in the Caucasus - up to 27 m. The crown is sprawling, very dense, ovoid-cylindrical, often multi-topped. The trunk is ribbed, tapered, covered with reddish-gray, smooth, later lamellar, exfoliating bark.

In the Far East (in the southeast of the Khabarovsk Territory, in the Primorsky Territory and in the south of the Sakhalin Region, and outside of Russia - in China, on the Korean Peninsula and in Japan), the pointed yew (Taxus cuspidata) grows. This type of clean, independent stands does not form, like the berry yew in Europe. However, on Petrov Island (Primorsky Territory, Lazovsky Reserve), a yew grove has been preserved, the area of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich is almost a whole hectare. The spiky yew grows singly or in small groups in spruce-fir or spruce-cedar forests with an admixture of broad-leaved species, and on the islands - in bamboo thickets.

An evergreen coniferous tree, reaching a height of only 10-12 m by the age of 200, takes a shrub form in the northern part of its range. The brownish-red bark with longitudinal cracks has characteristic light spots, the needles are flat, soft, dark green above, light below, up to 2.5 cm long and 2.5-3 mm wide, pointed at the end. Seeds ripen in August-September.

Canadian yew(Taxus Canadensis), grows in the undergrowth of coniferous and coniferous-broad-leaved forests in northeastern North America, occupies a vast territory from Newfoundland and Manitoba to northeastern Kentucky and Iowa in the United States, occurs both in moist mossy forests and along the rocky slopes of northern exposures. This is an evergreen shrub up to 1.5-2 m high. The needles are 1.0-2.5 cm long, about 2 mm wide, green on both sides, flat, slightly curved, with a sharp end.

Tees medium(Taxus Media) is a natural hybrid of two species - Taxus cuspidnta and Taxus baccata. It occupies an intermediate position between the yew berry and spiky. Growth is more powerful than that of the yew berry. Older branches olive green, often reddish from above in the sun, shoots ascending. The needle needles are similar to the needles of a spiky yew, but the needles are arranged strictly in two rows.

Yew wood has a red-brown heartwood and sharply demarcated yellowish-white sapwood. The annual layers are narrow and winding. There are no resin ducts, the core rays are invisible. The wood has a beautiful texture, burls are especially valued.

Due to the fact that the difference between the early and late wood of the annual layer is small, yew, unlike other conifers, is classified as a species with high even density. The number of annual layers per 1 cm in the yew is 9-10 (western regions of Ukraine).

Properties of yew wood

The properties of yew wood significantly depend on the place of their growth. The density of wood (average, at 12% moisture) in trees grown in Germany is 670 kg/m3 (actually, there is a variation from 640 to 810 kg/m3). In Armenia - an average of 584 kg / m3, in the western regions of Ukraine - 780 kg / m3, in the North Caucasus - 760 kg / m3. The most dense is the wood of the spiky yew (Primorsky Territory) - 812 kg/m3. Yew shows a very capricious nature in the process of drying (warps, cracks) and belongs to the strongly drying breeds. It should be noted that these negative properties of wood are most often found in specimens with a lower density. Information about the mechanical and technological properties of yew wood is limited. First of all, this is due to the fact that its commercial use has almost ceased a long time ago. Wood is well processed by cutting, including veneer peeling, it is perfectly ground and polished. Yew is characterized by elasticity and one of the best (compared to other breeds) bending abilities. It adheres well, but it is very difficult to impregnate with protective compounds (core). Exceptionally well accepts stains and stains, perfectly varnished. Easily finished in black (ebony) wood.

Yew has a high resistance to damage by fungi (rot), for which in Russia since ancient times it has been called a “non-pus-tree”. However, elements of houses and furniture made of yew are sometimes affected by insects - black house barbel and some types of grinder beetles. According to the European standard EC 350-2: 1994, yew, along with oak, white locust, chestnut, mahogany and a number of others, belongs to resistant species. Moreover, in this group, yew should be put in first place. Only exotic breeds, such as teak, eucalyptus and greenheart, have higher resistance.

Scope of yew wood

In addition to high strength and biostability, yew has bactericidal properties. He, like all conifers, emits phytoncides that kill microorganisms in the air. The house, in which the ceiling beams are made of its wood, was considered protected from diseases, which was extremely appreciated in the era of mass epidemics.

When the yew was no longer enough for construction, they began to produce furniture from it. Later it was used for the manufacture of sacred objects - crosses, tabernacles, shrines for relics (in all cases when the contents needed to be protected from damage).

However, the properties of this plant were not always used for positive purposes. So, legends say that there was a simple way to eliminate people objectionable to someone: they were served wine in a beautiful carved mahogany goblet, after which, after a while, fatal poisoning occurred. The same action is described in Agatha Christie's famous detective story "The Secret of the Blackbirds", where the heroes were "treated" with yew jam.

However, here the author made an inaccuracy: if the jam was prepared from yew according to all the rules, then it could not cause poisoning, since the pulp of cones is the only absolutely harmless part of yew. In the remaining components of the plant, the poison is evenly distributed, and the older the needles, the more poisonous it is.

The yew played an interesting role in European history. It can be considered that the British Empire partly owes its existence to him. The fact is that yew wood, in addition to high strength, has very high elasticity: a long branch as thick as a finger can be freely twisted into a ring several times. The branches of female plants are almost absolutely even and reach a length of 2.5-3 m. British combat bows were made from them, which for a long time were the most powerful weapon of the infantry.

Nowadays, the European yew is not of great forestry value. Rarely appearing on the market, wood is used for veneer, wood carving, and musical instrument making. Today, yew is a material for exclusive furniture, handicrafts and is used mainly in the form of sliced ​​veneer for finishing less valuable species.