Trees or shrubs, usually dioecious. Leaves spirally arranged although often appearing to be in 2 rows, more or less linear, flattened, with a single vein. Male strobili with 3–8 scales at base; pollen grains wingless. Cones axillary, generally maturing in 1 year, containing a single ovule without subtending bract. Cotyledons with a single vein.

Contains 5 genera and 16 species in Europe, North Africa and Asia south through Malaysia to New Caledonia and in North and Central America.

Taxus L.

Buds minute, scale-like, persisting at the base of young shoots. Leaves usually appearing to be in 2 rows, linear, acute at apex, with microscopic papillae and marked with 2 broad, yellowish-green stomatal bands beneath. Male strobili subglobose, borne along the undersides of young shoots, axillary; microsporophylls 6–14, each with 4–9 microsporangia. Female strobili consisting of several sterile, imbricate scales with the upper one fertile. Seeds ovoid or subglobose, acute at apex, covered except at the tip by a fleshy, usually red aril.

Seven or eight species, which are geographically discrete in Europe, north-west Africa and southern and eastern Asia south to the Philippines and Celebes. The species are distinguished mainly on leaf characters. Cultivated hybrids are recorded between all of them.