Cephalotaxus harringtonii - Japanese Plum Yew

The Japanese Plum Yew's fishbone-like foliage is breathtakingly decorative all year round; the fruits have a sweet pulp, and the roasted nuts offer an extraordinary treat. Cephalotaxus harringtonii is a shrub-like, rarely offered evergreen which tolerates deep shade as well as the heat and the cold. It possess foliage resembling that of yews (Taxus) and the fruits on the female plants resembling tiny plums. The dioecious plant can only develop fruit if the female plant is planted together with at least one male pollinator. The growth is slow and it may take as much as 10 years for a plant to reach 4-6’ tall. The appearance of the evergreen is linear, spirally-arranged and yew-like with its leaves appearing in a v-shaped pattern on erect stems, many of which rise up from the base of the plant. The plants will spread with age. Ripe fruits are edible, the seeds are sweet when roasted.

The intended main use of this plant is to grow food for human consumption. We always recommend further research to learn the different ways in which the food source can be prepared and consumed.