
Small trees or shrubs; branches alternate. Leaves distinctly alternate, dark green above, 1-2.5 cm long, 1-2 mm wide, flexible, the tips pointed but not sharp and piercing, faintly and pleasantly aromatic when crushed. Seeds ovoid, enclosed to near apex by a red, fleshy, cuplike aril, entire structure 1 cm or less in diam., maturing in fall. The poisonous alkaloid taxine is present in the bark, leaves, and seeds; the aril is edible. Two species very similar morphologically but allopatric in distribution.