Taxus baccata, the Common Yew or European Yew (though proper Englishmen still like to call it the English Yew) has many traits and features about which we shall report more in due course. Solitairs, for example, have the ability to grow branches arching down, back to earth, and there to root and bring forth a 'new' tree (although it is part of the same mother tree, of course). This can also happen inside the hollow trunk of the parent tree thus appearing as if the yew renews itself from the inside out. Which indeed it does.

For countless millennia the Yew has been the Tree of Life in many cultures. In Georgia, southwest Russia, in the Himalayas and in Japan its native name means Tree of God.
Its biological ability for complete renewal together with its immense life-span – yew trees are the oldest living things in Europe and Western Asia – have made it the Tree of Rebirth and Eternal Life. In the Christian churchyard it became a symbol for the Resurrection.

Its ability for complete renewal together with its immense life-span – yew trees are the oldest living things in Europe and Western Asia – made it the Tree of Rebirth and Eternal Life. Planted at Neolithic burial mounds it later became the Celtic sacred tree and subsequently the Christian Churchyard Yew that we can still enjoy today. But young and ancient yews grow outside churchyards too, and they are equally impressive. And they are equally under threat!

In many countries (e.g. Germany, Poland) the Yew is under full legal protection and not the smallest seedling can legally be destroyed. But England never ratified this law. Which is an irony because here we have the majority of really ancient trees.

Friends of the Trees is dedicated to investigate the legal possibilities in the UK and join hands with the Tree Register of the British Isles and the Conservation Foundation to achieve the greatest legal protection for ancient yew trees that is possible on a national scale.

Furthermore, we have to understand that such trees are GREEN MONUMENTS and don't belong to any district council or county or even nation but to humankind as a whole. In fact, they belong to themselves and the planet and not to us. They are WORLD HERITAGE. Hence we are preparing a proposal to the United Nations to list ancient yew sites as Natural Heritage sites – on the same level as Cultural Heritage sites such as the Pyramids of Gizeh or the temples of Angkor Wat. Many an ancient yew is even older than some of the man-made Cultural Heritage sites!

Yes, I want to help this noble cause and protect these ancient beings for many thousand years to come!