Seed of Taxus baccata L. from park trees – Morphological characteristics

Abstract

Taxus baccata L. is a rare species in the forests of Serbia, holding the status of a protected species as a tertiary relic. Contrary to the distribution in forests, the species is represented in parks. Yew is a dioecious species that bears fruit every or every other year, and the seeds are surrounded by a fleshy red covering that is extremely attractive. Data on the morphological characteristics of yew seeds are limited to a few literature sources due to the infrequent collection of seeds and significantly more frequent propagation by vegetative means. Seeds were collected during the fall of 2021 from 13 yew trees (11 trees from Belgrade and one from Novi Sad and Vrdnik) to investigate their morphological characteristics. The morphological characteristics of the seeds (length and width of the seeds diameter and shape of the seed scar, as well as dry weight of the seeds) from these trees are within the limits of the values reported in the literature for yew seeds. Significant variability in seed characteristics between the observed trees was proven using analysis of variance, and then grouping was performed using post-hoc Tukey HSD. Individual trees that are spatially close to each other showed a higher degree of seed similarity than spatially distant trees, as confirmed by cluster analysis (Tree Clustering, Single Linkage-Euclidean distances).