smokey yew

[sarah]

I am sitting in my office looking at what looks like smoke coming from the very large yew tree in my garden. I know its not on fire and I have noticed this phenomenon before, possibly an annual event. Is it dispersing seed? It does look just like wafts of smoke.

[sarah]

[Truffle]

Hi Sarah,

It will probably be pollen. When its in full flower and you shake the branches huge clouds of pollen (from the male flowers) can be released which look a lot like smoke! It looks pretty amazing and there are quite a lot of conifer species which do this...
The seeds are a fair bit bigger and encased in those fantastic red berries that the tree will produce later in the year.

Cheers,

Truffle

[sarah]

aha of course, pollen.  yes, that would make a lot more sense.  it really does look strange as my yew tree is huge.  thanks trufffle.