Taxus Baccata (Forest Alveolus)

Taxus baccata is a very long-lived slow-growing evergreen conifer, arboreal or shrubby, up to 10-15 m tall (exceptionally it reaches 20 m). The crown is dark green, broadly pyramidal with ascending or horizontally branched branches. The bark is reddish brown, initially smooth but with age it cracks and divides into plates. The young branches are green. The leaves are linear, slightly curved, up to 3 cm long and dark green on the upper side, lighter underneath; they are inserted on the branches in two opposite rows and are very poisonous. It is a dioecious species. The male flowers are grouped in catkins, the female ones transform into arils. The fruits, initially green, become red when ripe and contain a single seed, hard and very poisonous; the pulp, on the other hand, is harmless and edible. Birds help the plant spread: they eat the arils and digest the pulp, while the actual seeds manage to pass through the digestive process intact and, once expelled, settle in the soil, giving rise to a new specimen.

Pedoclimatic needs

It prefers humid and cool, shady places with calcareous soil. In Italy it grows naturally in the mountains in beech or turkey oak woods, but intense use in the past has limited its presence today. This species is not rustic and does not tolerate intense and prolonged frosts, resisting up to -4-6°C. Due to the beauty of its dense and compact foliage, it is widely used in parks and gardens as an ornamental hedge, for barriers or as an isolated plant in free form or pruned according to the criteria of topiary art.

Botanical information

Name:
Taxus baccata

Family:
Taxaceae