What Kind of Trees Are These?

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shekhina Gulf Breeze, FL(Zone 9a) May 16, 2008

And does anyone know how to prune them?

Thanks!

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plantfreak78 Rolesville, NC(Zone 7b) May 16, 2008

That looks like Japanese Yew (Podocarpus macrophyllus 'Maki'). You can prune them however you like. It would be fairly difficult to mess it up although I would recommend hand clipping them instead of using electric shears. Also, don't cut it back by more than half at a time.

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shekhina Gulf Breeze, FL(Zone 9a) May 16, 2008

i thought they might be yews until i started looking yews up online.. they looked like none of the pictures i saw.

Thanks!!!

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plantfreak78 Rolesville, NC(Zone 7b) May 16, 2008

There are several different genera that are called yews including Podocarpus, Cephalotaxus and the one you probably saw most, Taxus (which has a much smaller, finely textured needle)

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shekhina Gulf Breeze, FL(Zone 9a) May 16, 2008

Here's a close up of the tree.. the needles look larger than what i'm seeing online.

Thumbnail by shekhina
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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom May 17, 2008

they look like Yews to me also, as said before there are several different types of yew, there are English, Irish with yellow foliage and Japanese, Chinese etc, also looking at the bark it is dark enough to be yew but the English and Irish yew has a much rougher texture, if I can find out more for you I will get back to you, maybe I am way off here, so I will try get my book of trees out in the morning, what is putting me off sticking with yew is the foliage is quite soft and feathery, so dont prune it till you know for sure as some of these types of trees dont regrow from bare wood and if you cut into the older wood, you may mess up the growing shoots for good so hang on till you get a proper confirmation.
WeeNel.

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plantfreak78 Rolesville, NC(Zone 7b) May 17, 2008

Unfortunately that close-up doesn't help much. Although I can tell you it's definitely not Taxus. I'm still sticking with Podocarpus. A surefire way to tell is that the midrib of the leaf on Podocarpus is distinctly raised. This picture sort of shows what I'm describing, especially the bottom (rightmost) leaf. http://www.newbotany.com/Portals/12/NOPR/Podocarpus2detail.JPG

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 17, 2008

I agree, definitely looks like a Podocarpus of some sort (or maybe Afrocarpus, I know the genus was recently split and I don't know which ones went where). I had one at my old house that looked virtually identical to yours (unfortunately since I didn't plant it, I don't know what species it was.)

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shekhina Gulf Breeze, FL(Zone 9a) May 17, 2008

Thanks folks! waiting to hear back from Weenel. I love this place!

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