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Cephalotaxus harringtonia
Also called Harrington's Plum Yew, Harrington Plum Yew, Harrington's Cephalotaxus, Japnese Plum Yew, Cows Tail Pine, Plum Fruit Yew, Plum Yew
Japanese plum yew is a dioecious evergreen conifer, usually a shrub or small tree, grown in Western gardens for its dense, dark needle-like foliage. It thrives in partial shade and deep, rich, well-drained soil.
Cephalotaxus harringtonii, commonly known as Korean plum yew, Japanese plum-yew, Harrington's cephalotaxus, or cowtail pine, is a species of coniferous shrub or small tree in the family Cephalotaxaceae. It is native to East Asia, but is occasionally utilised in western gardens and several cultivars exist for these purposes. Japanese plum yew (Korean plum yew) has been in cultivation in Europe since 1829, and many modern horticulturists are familiar with this species, named in honour of Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington, one of the first to grow the plant in a European garden, at Elvaston.
Cephalotaxus harringtonii has been in cultivation in the United Kingdom since 1829 and is infrequently encountered as a garden specimen. Of the several species that exist in the genus, C. harringtonii is the one most often encountered in western gardens. Several cultivars exist:
'Fastigiata' was first selected in 1861 in Japan. It grows to 6 metres in height and it characterised by its broad cluster of erect stems and very dark green leaves that spread all around the stem and are strongly decurved. The shoots are unbranched in the upper parts of the plant, while the lower parts have somewhat chaotic projecting side-shoots that hang down and contain leaves in flat ranks. The flowers are also inconspicuous.
This species is native to China, the Korean peninsula, Japan and Taiwan.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cephalotaxus harringtonii by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
