Taxaceae
The
Family Taxaceae, commonly called the
Yew family, includes five genera and 17 species of
coniferous plants generally regarded as distinct from other conifers and placed in a separate order, the
Taxales. These are much branched, small trees and shrubs with leaves alternate, 2-ranked, linear to lanceolate, and persistent (
evergreen). The leaves have pale green bands on the undersides or alternating bands of white and green. Plants are dioecious, rarely monoecious, with a staminate strobilus (cone), but the ovule not in a cone; instead terminal on a sporophyll, the seed enveloped by a fleshy
aril.
Some botanists hold that the differences do not support a separate order while others even create a separate class (Class Taxopsida) under the Pinophyta. Thus, the family is placed in some treatments in the Order Pinales. In other schemes, the genera Amentotaxus, Austrotaxus, and Torreya are each placed in their own separate family.