Yew, Golden Irish
The Golden Irish Yew, is an evergreen conifer, that can grow to a height of 7m, and may live for over 2,000 years, although 1,500 years may be more typical.
The bark is brown-grey with purple tones, and it peels.
This tree was planted for the Millennium in 2000.
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Common Name:
Golden Irish Yew
Scentific Name:
Taxus baccata fastigiata aurea
Tree No:
29
Location:
K16
Straight, small, curved needles with a pointed tip, and coloured black-green (darker than common yew). Unlike common yew, the needles grow all around the twig, rather than in rows.
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Reproductive Organs – Male structures are rounded with white-yellow anthers while female structures are bud-like and scaly, and green when young.
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The flowers are pollinated by wind and develop into succulent red fruits with a naked seed inside. The red, fleshy part of the fruit is known as an aril, ripens in autumn.
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Yew is one of the only coniferous species native to the UK.
The Irish yew was originally discovered in County Fermanagh in 1780. All Irish yews descended from cuttings of one tree, and it is thought to be a mutant form of the common yew (Taxus baccata).
Irish yew prefers to grow in well-drained soil and can often be found in church yards. It is also grown for ornamental purposes throughout the UK and is tolerant of exposure and urban pollution.
Yew hedges in particular are incredibly dense, offering protection and nesting opportunities for many birds. The UK’s smallest birds – the goldcrest and firecrest – nest in broadleaf woodland with a yew understorey. The fruit is eaten by birds and small mammals. The leaves are eaten by caterpillars of moths.
Yew timber is incredibly strong and durable and traditionally the wood was used to make long bows.
The Irish yew is the tree that supplied the English bowmen who were victorious at the battles of Crécy, Agincourt and Poitiers with their weapon, the longbow. They were cut from a Yew log using both the sap wood on the outside and the heart wood on the inside, as Yew sap wood is only strong in tension while the heart wood is strong in compression, thus creating the phenomenal power of the longbow.
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