Taxus baccata 'Fastigiata', Irish Yew
Account Summary
Originally a very rare native, but now always deliberately planted; occasional.
1825; Mackay, J.T.; "First observed at Florencecourt".
Growth form and origin
This is the famous upright or fastigate 'Florencecourt Yew', planted world wide and known to all, although probably hated by some on account of its very dark, almost blackish-green, often dusty, or even sooty, fastigate foliage and its rather gloomy funereal associations with church and other graveyards. Although it originates here in Fermanagh, we have not bothered to record its local distribution in our vice county botanical survey as it is always planted.
The original one or two specimens of this unusual growth form were collected as juveniles some time before 1767, or perhaps as early as 1740 (Nelson 1981). It was discovered at a place called Carraig-na-madadh or 'The Rock of the Dog', on the NE slopes of Cuilcagh mountain above Florencecourt by a Mr George Willis, a farmer who lived at Aghtenroark (actually, Aghatirourke), in the parish of Killesher (see pseudonymous account by Norval, The Gardeners' Chronicle 1873, p. 1336). Willis planted one specimen in his own garden which eventually died around 1865, but fortunately he presented a second to his landlord, Lord Mountflorence (later created the Earl of Enniskillen), who lived in Florencecourt house. This plant has survived to this day and is the mother tree of all 'Florencecourt Yews' everywhere.
The original station
Charles Nelson and John Phillips investigated the original find area on Cuilcagh thoroughly in 1980 with the help of W. Forde, a former gamekeeper of Lord Enniskillen whose family had handed down knowledge of the spot through the generations. No trees whatsoever now grow in the rock strewn area of blanket bog near the boundary of Aghatirourke and Beihy townlands, below an exposed sandstone outcrop about 2 m high, which has been renamed locally 'Willis's Rock', grid reference: H141297 (Nelson 1981; Morton 1998).
Reproduction
The Florencecourt Yew is a female 'berried' tree, so that all its descendants raised vegetatively must also be female. The fastigate form does not breed true from seed, so the gene producing the upright growth form appears to be recessive (Milner 1992, p. 42). Very occasionally a mutant branch with male cones is produced. This also happens rarely with the common, or 'English', yew (Morton 1998, pp. 196-7).
Garden introduction
The fastigate form of Yew is very easily propagated from cuttings, and when around 1780 the Florencecourt specimen was admired by George Cunningham, a Liverpool nurseryman who obviously could see its commercial potential, Lord Enniskillen was persuaded to give him some slips. Probably it was Cunningham who first introduced the tree to the horticultural trade (Nelson 1981), and possibly not Lee and Kennedy of Hammersmith (Bean 1970-80), although they too, along with other private Irish gardeners, may have been given cuttings sometime around 1780 (Nelson 1981).
Irrespective of exactly who introduced the tree to commerce, by 1838 the 'Irish Yew', or better, the 'Florencecourt Yew', was available to the public at a low price (Bean 1980, 4, p. 566), and was widely disseminated as we can easily see by today’s many large specimens and avenues of the tree around the country in gardens, demesnes and church associated sites.
Thomas Packenham featured and photographed the mother tree with himself standing under it in his excellent book, Meetings with remarkable trees (Packenham 1996), although he comments rather disparagingly of its present day appearance. It is also illustrated in the late Dinah Browne's attractive booklet of Northern Ireland's special trees, Our remarkable trees, photographed by Mike Hartwell (Browne & Hartwell 1999).
Condition of the original tree
The original fastigate tree at Florencecourt grows beside a small stream in a glade surrounded and sheltered by laurel and other taller trees, on land owned and managed by the N Ireland Forest Service. The tree survives rather than thrives, being rather looser in habit than normal, scraggy and ragged due to its uncongenial position, which was heavily shaded in the past by laurels, and in a soil too damp for good growth. It is misshapen by the repeated taking of cuttings, and while some clearing of trees around it and careful pruning of the specimen carried out in 1980 has helped rejuvenate it, the tree is still somewhat overgrown with lichens. Nevertheless, it remains recognisable and while it lives is of botanical interest.
Threats
None.