Japanese Yew

About Japanese Yew in Alberta

Japanese yew is a dark, fine-textured evergreen shrub or small tree from northeast Asia. In Alberta it is an introduced ornamental with an exceptionally limited known presence and very few known existing specimens. Its flat, pointed needles often appear in two ranks along the twig, and female plants carry a fleshy red aril around a single seed. For Ancient Roots Alberta, Japanese yew matters as a rare, long-lived landscape planting whose identity, setting, and survival through Alberta winters are worth documenting carefully.

Identification: Needles are individual, linear, dark green, and usually about 2-3 cm long. They attach spirally but commonly lie in two flat-looking ranks along the twig. The tips are distinctly pointed, and the undersides are paler or yellowish. The needles are flatter and softer than spruce needles and are unlike the scale foliage of cedars and most junipers.

Alberta range and habitat: Japanese yew is native to the southern Russian Far East, northern China, Korea, and Japan. It is not a wild Alberta forest species.