[13] Most Romance languages, with the notable exception of French (if), kept a version of the Latin word taxus (Italian tasso, Corsican tassu, Occitan teis, Catalan teix, Gasconic tech, Spanish tejo, Asturian texu, Portuguese teixo, Galician teixo and Romanian tisă) from the same root as toxic.

[citation needed] The seeds themselves are poisonous and bitter, but are opened and eaten by some bird species, including hawfinches,[14] greenfinches, and great tits.

[20] T. baccata's richest central European populations are in Swiss yew-beech woodlands, on cool, steep marl slopes up to 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) in elevation in the Jura Mountains and Alpine foothills.

In England it grows best in steep slopes of the chalk downs, forming extensive stands invading the grassland outside the beech woods.

[1] In centuries past T. baccata was exterminated from many woodlands as a poisonous hazard to the cattle and horses that often grazed in the woods[citation needed].

Rabbits and deer however have a level of immunity to the poisonous alkaloids, and the seeds are dispersed by birds,[1] with thrushes greatly enjoying the fruit.

One characteristic contributing to yews' longevity is that, unlike most other trees, they are able to split under the weight of advanced growth without succumbing to disease in the fracture.

[citation needed] The Fortingall Yew in Perthshire, Scotland, has one of the largest recorded trunk girths in Britain, reportedly 16-17m in the 18th century, and experts estimate it to be 5,000 years old.

[30] A unique forest formed by Taxus baccata and European box (Buxus sempervirens) lies within the city of Sochi, in the Western Caucasus.

[32] Yew poisonings are relatively common in both domestic and wild animals which consume the plant accidentally,[8][9][10] resulting in "countless fatalities in livestock".

[40] Male yews are extremely allergenic, blooming and releasing abundant amounts of pollen in the spring, with an OPALS allergy scale rating of 10 out of 10.

[41] While yew pollen does not contain sufficient taxine alkaloids to cause poisoning, its allergenic potential has been implicated in adverse reactions to paclitaxel treatment.

An tIúr is a shortening of Iúr Cinn Trá, "yew tree at the head of the strand", which was formerly the most common Irish name for Newry.

[45] York (Old Norse: Jórvík) is derived from the Brittonic name Eburākon (Latinised variously as Eboracum, Eburacum, or Eburaci), a combination of *eburos "yew-tree" and a suffix of appurtenance *-āko(n) "belonging to-, place of-" (compare Welsh -og)[43] meaning "place of the yew trees" (efrog in Welsh, Old Irish iubrach "grove of yew trees, place with one or more yew trees", iúrach in Irish Gaelic and iùbhrach in Scottish Gaelic); the city itself is called Eabhrach (Irish) and Eabhraig (Scottish Gaelic), from the Latin Eboracum); or alternatively, "the settlement of (a man named) Eburos" (a Celtic personal name is mentioned in different documents as Eβουρος, Eburus, and Eburius and, when combined with the Celtic possessive suffix *-āko(n), could be used to denote his property).

Similarly, Florus notes that when the Cantabrians were under siege by the legate Gaius Furnius in 22 BC, most of them took their lives either by sword, fire, or a poison extracted ex arboribus taxeis, that is, from the yew tree (2: 33, 50–51).

In a similar way, Orosius notes that when the Astures were besieged at Mons Medullius, they preferred to die by their own swords or by yew poison rather than surrender (6, 21, 1).

[citation needed] In the Septuagint rendering of the Book of Nahum, 1:10, Nineveh and other deemed enemies of the biblical God are foretold to "be laid bare even to its foundation, and…devoured as a twisted yew.

It was tradition on All Saints' Day to bring a branch of a yew tree to the tombs of those who had died recently so they would be guided in their return to the Land of Shadows.

[60] Another suggested explanation is that yews were planted to discourage farmers and drovers from letting animals wander onto the burial grounds, the poisonous foliage being the disincentive.

Due to the ability of their branches to root and sprout anew after touching the ground, yews became symbols of death, rebirth, and therefore immortality.

Some scholars now believe errors were made in past interpretations of the ancient writings, and that the tree is most likely a European yew (Taxus baccata).

This ended a point of conflict in the early 1990s; many environmentalists, including Al Gore, had opposed the destructive harvesting of Pacific yew for paclitaxel cancer treatments.

Easy to work, yew is among the hardest of the softwoods, yet it possesses a remarkable elasticity, making it ideal for products that require springiness, such as bows.

[21] Due to all parts of the yew and its volatile oils being poisonous and cardiotoxic,[4][7][68] a mask should be worn if one comes in contact with sawdust from the wood.

[69] One of the world's oldest surviving wooden artifacts is a Clactonian yew[70] spear head, found in 1911 at Clacton-on-Sea, in Essex, UK.

[citation needed] In 1507 the Holy Roman Emperor asked the Duke of Bavaria to stop cutting yew, but the trade was profitable, and in 1532 the royal monopoly was granted for the usual quantity "if there are that many."

In 1562, the Bavarian government sent a long plea to the Holy Roman Emperor asking him to stop the cutting of yew, and outlining the damage done to the forests by its selective extraction, which broke the canopy and allowed wind to destroy neighbouring trees.

The following cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit:-[79] In England, yew has historically been sometimes associated with privies (outside toilets), possibly because the smell of the plant keeps insects away.

[87] The edible arils, often colloquially referred to as “yew berries” (or traditionally as “snotty gogs” in parts of England[88]), are eaten by some foragers in western countries, although great care must be taken to remove or spit out the toxic seed.

[2] Clippings from ancient specimens in the UK, including the Fortingall Yew, were taken to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh to form a mile-long hedge.