Alternate name: American Yew

Family: Taxaceae, Yew view all from this family

Description A low, straggling, evergreen shrub or ground cover with short, straight, flat needles and spreading limbs that ascend at the tips. Bark shreddy, reddish brown.
Needles: 3/4" (2 cm) long, pointed, flattened, in 2 rows. Dark green above, pale green below; takes on a reddish-brown tint in winter.
Fruit: small, pointed seed enclosed in fleshy, bright red, berry-like cup.
Height: 3-6' (0.9-1.8 m) tall; may be twice as wide.

Warning Leaves, twigs, and seeds inside fleshy "berries" are all poisonous if eaten, and potentially fatal. Sensitivity to a toxin varies with a person’s age, weight, physical condition, and individual susceptibility. Children are most vulnerable because of their curiosity and small size. Toxicity can vary in a plant according to season, the plant’s different parts, and its stage of growth; and plants can absorb toxic substances, such as herbicides, pesticides, and pollutants from the water, air, and soil.

Habitat Cool, moist, mixed woods.

Range Newfoundland to southeastern Manitoba south through the northeastern United States west to Minnesota, south to northern Illinois and northeastern Iowa, and locally to Virginia and Tennessee.

Discussion This native of northeastern woodlands is often cultivated as an evergreen hedge plant or a foundation shrubbery. Care must be taken to warn children against eating the berries. Birds, however, eat the fleshy red cups and deposit the toxic seeds with impunity.