Photo: Connie Barlow, CC0 · Wikimedia Commons

Florida Yew

Taxus floridana

Also called Taxus baccata var. floridana.

A rare yew of the Apalachicola River ravines, a bushy evergreen small tree for shade in warm Southern gardens, with red fruit on female trees.

RareEvergreenTolerates shadeWildlife value

Type: Small tree
Mature height: 12–25 ft
USDA zones: 6–10
Growth rate: Slow
Sun: Full, Part, Shade
Soil moisture: Average
Grows wild in: Rich moist slopes and the forest understory
Native range: Florida See what is native in your state

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Florida yew is an evergreen that grows wild only in the ravines along the Apalachicola River in the Florida Panhandle, where it shares the bluffs with Florida torreya. Unlike our Canada yew, a low shrub that carries both kinds of cone on one plant, it grows upright into a small tree, and its plants are male or female. Its flat, dark green needles, about an inch long, end in an abrupt point. Florida lists it as endangered, and NatureServe ranks it imperiled. Logging, development and deer that rub their antlers on the stems threaten the wild stands. Grow it as a shaded specimen in a warm Southern garden, where English and Japanese yews suffer in the heat and humidity.

Size, growth and what to expect

Florida yew grows slowly, about a foot a year in our growth estimator. It makes a bushy small tree or large shrub 12 to 25 feet tall and up to 18 feet wide, and it often stays under 15 feet. Old stems bend to the ground and root, so a plant spreads into a clump.

Pollen is shed from January to March. On female trees the fruit ripens from August into October, a hard seed about a quarter inch long set in a fleshy red cup. Birds eat nearly all of the ripe fruit and spread the seed.

It grows wild only on the steep, shaded slopes of ravines along the Apalachicola River in Liberty and Gadsden counties, Florida, under beech, southern magnolia and American holly. Only 17 stands had been mapped by 1990. Its soils there are slightly acid to neutral sandy loams.

How to grow Florida Yew

Florida yew does best in part shade and also grows in shade or full sun. Shelter it from harsh winds, which burn the needles in winter. It wants a fertile, slightly acid soil that stays moist but drains well, and it does not stand flooding. In soggy ground its roots rot. Plant it 15 feet from a wall and set trees 12 feet apart. Keep it at least 15 feet from overhead wires.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant in early spring or early fall, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and mulch a wide ring clear of the trunk. Its seed has a double dormancy, and seed sown outdoors in late summer or fall mostly comes up the second spring. Indoors, keep cleaned seed damp at 61 to 64 degrees F for five to seven months, then in the refrigerator for two to four more. Sow it half an inch deep and shade the seedlings their first summer.

Water weekly through the first two summers and in long dry spells after that. It can be hard to establish in an ordinary landscape. Deer rub their antlers on the stems and can kill them, so fence or cage young trees.

Trees are male or female, and only females bear the red fruit, so plant three or more seedlings for a male and a female. The wind carries the pollen, so plant them near one another. Twig and needle blights, root weevils, mealybugs and scale insects can attack it. Every part except the red flesh around the seed is poisonous to people, pets and livestock.

Heights and zones are typical ranges for the species in cultivation; local conditions and seed source shift them.

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