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What is the Himalayan Yew?

Taxus wallichiana, the Himalayan yew, is a species of yew, native to the Himalaya and parts of south-east Asia. The species has a variety of uses in traditional medicine. It is currently classified as endangered by the IUCN.

This is a species of the yew and is native to parts of south-east asia and the Himalaya.  This plant has a variety of uses in traditional medicine.    This species can live in a variety of habitats, like montane, temperate and tropical submontane to high montane forests.  This plant tends to be present as a low canopy tree.

Uses of Himalayan yew:

 The tree has medicinal use in Tibetan medicine and Ayurveda. Taxus wallichiana is also a source of the chemical precursors to an anticancer drug . Taxus wallichiana is used for making tea by many tribal communities  in the Himalayas.  The stem bark of this species, which is locally known as thuner, is collected for this purpose. This species is also used as fuelwood by the local communities. In Himachal it is known to be medicine for some types of cancer.

Why the himalayan yew is in danger :

A chemical compound called ‘taxol’ is extracted from the bark, needles, twigs and roots of this tree, and it has been successfully used to treat some cancers – the drug is now the biggest selling anti-cancer drug in the

world. The species is under great threat due to over-exploitation. In the last one decade,thousands of yew trees have dried up in various parts of India.

How himalyan yew can be conserved:

GTC (Global Trees Campaign) worked with the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), Nepal’s National Botanic Garden (NBG) and the Government of Nepal, Department of Plant Resources (DPR) to scale up conservation of yew’s in Nepal, including Taxus contorta.  Therefore, to conserve himalayan yew, we need to scale up conservation and protect these species.