Flower:

Male and female flowers are cone like structures called strobili, both about 1/8 inch long, borne singly in the leaf axils usually on different branches of the same plant, occasionally on separate plants. Male strobili are numerous, oval-elliptic, the cone scales yellowish, the pollen sacs initially creamy colored, turning tan.

Female strobili are more bud-like and less numerous than male strobili, with brown to greenish egg-shaped scales.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are evergreen, needle-like with a minute sharp point at the tip (mucronate), single, flattened, 3/8 to about 1 inch long, dark green on the upper surface, the lower surface paler with a prominent green midvein and appearing striped. Needles are arranged in a spiral around the twig but those on top and underneath the twig twist so that needles appear to be mostly lateral, giving the branch a flattened appearance.

Twigs are mostly alternate, hairless, green to yellowish when young, becoming brown to reddish-brown the second year. Older bark is thin and scaly. Plants lack a central stem, the trunks branched from the base, the branches mostly widely spreading but rising at the tips, sometimes ascending, rarely erect. Branches root where they touch the ground and dense colonies may form.

Fruit:

Fruit is a cup-shaped, berry-like cone called an aril, up to 3/8 inch long, maturing to bright red, open at the top exposing the single seed.

Seeds are 4 to 5 mm long, oval to egg-shaped with a pointed tip, slightly flattened, dark brown with a textured surface.

Notes:

Canada Yew is an evergreen, understory shrub of forested swamps, cool ravines and talus slopes and reaches the western edge of its US range in Minnesota. It is highly shade-tolerant and may form large, clonal mats. Once common across its range, the species has been in decline primarily due to predation by over-abundant deer populations. Other factors, including harvesting for cancer drugs and climate change, increase the risk of local extirpations. It is easily recognizable by the sprawling growth, flat needles with pointed tips that are arranged to appear lateral on the branch, and the bright red, cup-shaped fruit. A seedling may resemble Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea), which also has flat needles but they are blunt-tipped where Canada Yew needles are sharply pointed. It is the only member of the Taxaceae family in Minnesota, though there are exotic yews available in the nursery trade, some of which may escape cultivation but none have been known to naturalize in Minnesota.