Puget Sound Native Tree
Botanical Garden
People have created across the United States lists of the largest individual tree of many species as well as typical size of each in a mature forest. They call the largest tree a CHAMPION TREE, for bragging rights.
Pacific Yew
Typical dimensions of a large tree of this species in a mature forest:
Height:
Diameter:
Age:
Champion tree for this species:
Height:
Diameter:
Age:
30 feet
1 foot
200+ years
50'
2 ft
300+ years
6- A beautiful understory tree, the Pacific Yew is very slow growing. Chemicals in the bark are a cure for breast cancer.
Click the picture to enlarge it
Click again to return to this page
Pacific Yew
Taxus brevifolia
Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia) is a slow-growing, shade-tolerant evergreen conifer native to the Pacific Northwest, known for its hard, decay-resistant wood (used for bows) and its bark, which contains the anti-cancer compound taxol (paclitaxel). It typically grows as an understory tree with dark green needles, distinctive peeling reddish bark, and red, berry-like cones (arils), with the aril flesh being edible but the seed and other parts being highly toxic.
Pacific Yew
This tree species was growing at the Dolphin Place location when the property was purchased in 1973.
Exact data was not collected at the time. The following is data recorded in 2020.
Largest tree for this species within Dolphin Place Open Space:
Height:
Diameter:
30 ft
5 inches today/ 16 inches historic
Pacific yew cones are unique: instead of woody scales, the female produces a bright red, fleshy, berry-like structure called an aril, which partly encloses a single seed, looking like a tiny, soft, red "berry" about the size of a pea or small marble, attracting birds. Male cones are tiny, yellowish, and globose, but the prominent red arils are what people notice on the female trees, offering a pop of color and a meal for wildlife while the rest of the plant remains toxic.
The bark of a Pacific Yew is thin, scaly, and reddish-brown to purplish, peeling in irregular, papery flakes that reveal a smooth inner layer of bright red or orange, creating a patchy, colorful, and sometimes fluted or "funky" appearance, unlike typical rough conifer bark.
Pacific yew needles are short (about 1 inch), flat, dark green on top, and a lighter, yellowish-green below, arranged in two rows on flattened sprays, coming to a distinct point but feeling soft, not sharp, with a short twist at their base connecting them to the twig. They look similar to hemlock or fir needles but lack the bright white lines underneath, instead having indistinct lighter green bands of stomata.