NATURE
PHOTO: TIM KENDELL
HERE’S LOOKING AT YEW
I
t is 1,000 BC. You have just germinated from a seed that was probably deposited by a scavenging bird. A tiny 2 cm high emerald green shoot is the only sign of your presence above ground, but you are busily developing anchoring and feeding roots, threading through the damp soil of the forest floor. A good root system cannot be rushed and you’re in no hurry. Your teenage years are spent looking gangly and awkward, but something changes as you reach your 30’s. You start developing a characterful, rugged appearance. The weather is bending and shaping you – it will continue to do so for the rest of your life.
Truly ‘yew-nique’; the yew is unlike any other tree. It’s a conifer, yet produces no cones or needles – and it can, potentially, live forever. Some of the world’s oldest yews grow in the British Isles. Flo Whitaker visits an old friend and imagines its life story – so far… By your 100th birthday, you are becoming a feature in the landscape. Future archaeologists will name this period Late Bronze Age, but, of course, a passing Bronze Age hunter doesn’t know his time is almost up. He’s just grateful to take shelter from a sudden downpour under your evergreen canopy. As he waits for the rain to pass, perhaps he selects a branch
to carve into something useful. Yew wood is hard and close-grained – perfect material for tools and weapons, but he’s unlikely to choose your timber for cooking utensils. Although your red fleshy berries are fruity and succulent – beware! The black seeds within are extremely toxic and every other part of you is poisonous. A handful
of ingested leaves can kill a person, yet, come the modern 21st century era, your foliage will be used to develop life-saving, cancer medication. Such is your character; yews are contrary, perverse and reject all rules. As our Bronze Age acquaintance departs, to be replaced by hi-tech Iron Age yuppies, you flourish; extending your limbs, which have the curious ability to take root wherever they touch the ground. This allows you to make identically cloned copies of yourself and, potentially, live forever. By this method, a single tree can ‘walk’; eventually making a grove of yews with fused and
December 2021 | SUSSEX LIVING 91
Dec 21 Trees of Sussex Yews.indd 91
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