Each fall, along about the first of October, several letters come to me requesting an answer to the question, “Why do my yews never have red fruit like those of my neighbor?”
The answer is, unfortunately, that these gardeners have male plants that will never produce fruit, except for the one in a million chance that a few female flowers might appear on the otherwise all-male plant.
Dioecious Taxus “Yew”
Taxus is primarily a dioecious genus; some plants are male and others female. Only the females produce the attractive red arils which appear in early fall.
If one wants yews to bear attractive red fruit, one must use female plants with a few male plants nearby.
The next question usually is, “How can I be sure to get female plants?” There are many clones of Taxus (yew), each selected for one or more outstanding characteristics.
Since a clone comes by cuttings from one individual, most clones are either all male or all female.
So a gardener can obtain fruit-bearing yews by getting one of the female clones.
Taxus Clones
Unfortunately, some clones of Taxus include both male and female plants. This situation has two causes. First, some “clones” are only strains.
The horticulturist who introduced the “clones” propagated from several similar plants rather than from just one individual and got both sexes.
Occasionally sex reversion occurs in a plant, and horticulturists unknowingly introduce plants of the opposite sex into what was once an all-male or all-female clone. Taxus media ‘Brown’ may be an example.
This was introduced as a male form. However, both males and females are presently available in the trade. Some nurseries offer the male, others the female, but unfortunately, no mention is made of its fruiting habit.
Taxus “Hicks”
Recently on the campus of Michigan State University, a male plant of Taxus media ‘Hicks’ which had borne only male flowers for many years, was observed bearing three fruits on one branch that otherwise was heavily set with male buds. No apparent reason for this condition can be given. Nevertheless, it furnishes an interesting problem for future research.
Differentiating Male To Female Yew Strains
The lists show clones and strains of yew that are all male, all female, or mixed. Let us hope that new names will someday be given to members of the mixed group so that a person ordering a Taxus of a given name will get a plant of known sex, male or female, whichever he wants.
Some horticulturists try to do this by adding the word “Femina” to the botanical name, such as Taxus cuspidata nana Femina.
Unfortunately, however, more care must be taken in nurseries to ensure the plants are true to name; male plants of this selection are being sold now.
Also, although using “Femina” might be helpful, it does not conform to the Horticulture Code for Plant Nomenclature, which permits only the two Latin names followed by one English word to designate the clone.
Planting Fruit Bearing Yews
Fortunately, there are two other ways to be sure of planting fruit-bearing yews. One is obvious—select yews in the fall when they are in fruit. The other requires careful examination of flower buds.
Male buds are globular and usually very numerous compared to female buds, which are elliptic and usually not abundant.
When in bloom, the male flowers are conspicuous and release pollen liberally; female flowers remain inconspicuous but expose a naked ovule that may be seen.
The fruits of yew are attractive, and plants should be selected for the berries as they are in American holly. New clones or strains of Taxus should be kept true, and older ones should be purified as to sex.
44659 by Harold Davidson