Yew at St Clement’s Church

Standing stoically in the cemetery in front of St Clement’sChurch is one of Jersey’s best-known trees, a European yew (Taxus baccata)estimated to have been planted around 1700. For context, that’s seven yearsbefore Scotland and England united, when our population was 17,000 or so andmost of us spoke French. No local tree is thought to be older.

At 11 metres high with a 3.2 metre girth, this gloriousspecimen is easily visible from the adjacent main road. It’s in greatsurroundings too, with Jersey Biodiversity Centre stating: “Botanically this isprobably the one of the best-maintained and most biodiverse of all ourchurchyards.”

Someone who might agree is renowned dendrologist OwenJohnson. He visited us in 2009 to assess candidates for The Tree Register, anorganisation that collates statistics and designates ‘champion’ status tosuperlative regional and national specimens across the British Isles andIreland. The St Clement’s Church yew has earned its status.

Yews are common in churchyards, due in part to being symbolof death and rebirth, which perhaps ironically was originally a pagan belief.They also deter grazing animals with their notorious toxicity. For example,900g of yew needles could kill an average-sized horse. In fact, only one partof Taxus baccata isn’t poisonous – the flesh of the females' red,berry-like arils. The seeds remain highly toxic, however, albeit popular withbirds, most of which swallow and disperse them.

Interestingly, the poisonous agent in yew (taxane) is usedin chemotherapy drugs. It’s also the origin of its Latin family name. Death andTaxus jokes abound.

Given yew’s association with death, graveyards and poison,you can understand the origins of its ‘Tree of the Dead’ monicker, even if thisshouldn’t detract from its greater value and beauty.

A less morbid yew association is longevity, likely partlylinked to their churchyard ubiquity. It’s common for them to live beyond 600years and plenty exist that are far older. The UK’s oldest is Fortingall yew inPerthshire, among the oldest living trees in Europe at an estimated (average)5,000 years old. Put differently, it was around during the early Bronze Age.Insert ‘blown mind’ emoji.

If it hadn’t been for the Occupation, we may have had treesthis old – a salient reminder to protect what we have and something for ourpoliticians to consider.