You’d think after thousands of years on Earth, the Fortingall Yew wouldn’t be up for a major life change. Well, you’re wrong.
This ancient Scottish tree — estimated to be 5,000 years old and among Europe’s oldest living organisms — is changing genders, from male to female, according to Botanist Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.
Yews are typically dioecious, meaning they are one gender or the other. Male trees have small cones that release clouds of pollen during breeding time, while female trees have bright red berries.
“It was, therefore, quite a surprise to me to find a group of three ripe red berries on the Fortingal yew this October when the rest of the tree was clearly male,” Coleman wrote on the botanic garden’s blog.
Conifers such as the yew have been documented as changing genders, Coleman wrote. But, as he told AFP, the phenomenon is rare.
The tree, which lives in a small stone enclosure in the Fortingall Churchyard, could be undergoing the transformation as a tactic to prolong its life, Ancient Tree Forum chairman Brian Muelaner told The Guardian.
