Florida yew
| Florida yew | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Florida yew ( Taxus floridana ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Taxus floridana | ||||||||||||
| Nutt. ex Chapm. |
The Florida yew ( Taxus floridana ) is a species of the genus of the yew ( Taxus ) in the family of the yew family (Taxaceae).
description
Vegetative characteristics
The Florida yew is an evergreen, slow-growing shrub or tree that usually reaches heights of up to 5 meters, more rarely 8 to 10 meters and trunk diameters of up to 40 centimeters. The Florida yew branches broadly horizontally. The bark is purple-brown; on the young twigs it is still smooth, with age it breaks into small, irregular plates.
The dark green needles are about 2.5 inches long; they are soft and pliable and are parted on both sides from the branch. The shoot is fresh green and provides a nice contrast to the dark green older needles.
Generative characteristics
The Florida yew is dioeciously gendered ( diocesan ). The inconspicuous flowers appear on the female plants in March . In October, the yellow-brown, about 0.5 to 1 cm long seeds are ripe, which are partially surrounded by a red seed coat ( arillus ).
Occurrence
The Florida yew tree is endemic to a small area around the Apalachicola River in the northwestern part of the US state of Florida in the counties in Gadsden and Liberty County. It occurs in damp, shady canyons and in hardwood forests at altitudes of 15 to 30 meters along the east bank of the Apalachicola River. The IUCN 2010 considers the natural population of this rare species to be critically endangered.
Like other Taxus species, the Florida yew is a shadow specialist; it also gets along well in fully shaded locations. It does best in slightly acidic soils .
Taxonomy
The first description of Taxus floridana was in 1860 by Thomas Nuttall in Alvan Wentworth Chapman : Flora of the southern United States , page 436. A synonym for Taxus floridana Nutt. ex Chapm. is Taxus canadensis var. floridana (Nuttall ex Chapman) pilgrim .
Health notice
Almost all parts of the Florida yew plant are highly toxic.
use
The bark of the Florida yew tree contains taxol , a substance important as a cancer agent. However, there was no commercial cultivation; There are now methods of extracting taxol from certain types of fungus in the laboratory.
swell
- Christopher J. Earle: Taxus floridana. In: The Gymnosperm Database. December 12, 2010, accessed May 10, 2019 .
- Janet Sullivan, 1993: Taxus floridana data sheet from Fire Effects Information System = FEIS - US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory.
- Species description at hort.ufl.edu. (English; PDF file; 89 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Matthew H. Hils: Taxaceae. : Taxus floridana Nuttall ex Chapman. - Same text online as the printed work , In: Flora of North America Editorial Committee (Ed.): Flora of North America North of Mexico. Volume 2: Pteridophytes and Gymnosperms. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1993, ISBN 0-19-508242-7 .
- ↑ data sheet at floridata.com .
- ↑ Taxus floridana in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2019.1. Posted by: T. Spector, P. Thomas, R. Determann, 2010. Retrieved May 10, 2019.
- ↑ Nuttall ex Chapman: Flora of the southern United States , 1860, page 436. scanned at biodiversitylibrary.org .
- ↑ a b Taxus floridana at Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, accessed May 10, 2019.
