I did not know where to post this question but thought some of you might be able to help me. I don't know how to work the plant files thing with no information.
This is growing in a bed in front of a gas station in town. The bushes are low. Don't know if that is natural or if they trim them. The berries look like they have a seed in the end of the berry. Any idea what it is?
Thanks for any info you can give me. Looks like an interesting plant. I'm wondering if the berries are edible.
OH heavens... i remember playing with those berry things when i was a kid.
we had lots of those bushes... I jsut dont know the names of them.
but -- they always had to be trimmed and they made such a mess.... DH and I ended up tearing all of them out.
It's a common bush... the ID forum would ID it in a snap.
It looks like a member of the Taxus genus (yew). There are lots of different kinds of yews and with at least some of them, like the English Yew (Taxus baccata), the fruit is supposedly edible, but only the fleshy part - the seeds and all other parts of the plant are quite poisonous.
Some of the dwarf cultivators stay small, but others like the wild Taxus brevifolia that I've been trying to get a hold of can grow to thirty plus feet and with that one they've found a chemical component of the bark to be of possible medical relevance in the treatment of some cancers.
Many sources that I've read say that Taxus brevifolia is the same as T. baccata in that the fruity flesh is edible, but not the seeds. While the yew group does have potential uses beyond just looking pretty I'd still make sure to identify the exact species before eating those pretty berries.
~Amanda
I wouldn't eat it if I was you.
The trimmings of yew are being used to treat breast cancer....
That's great news Tuinkabouter and Spooky. Yew has been used as a medicinal for centuries, and finally, modern medicine is catching up. A union of both modalities is very powerful medicine indeed.
Thanks a million for all the info. I knew I could count on you guys. I'm sure nobody there would know what kind it was so I guess I'll just leave them there and enjoy them where they are. I'll pass on eating them no matter how juicy they look.
Birds really love them! That will add to the fun....
