Taxus baccata 'Repandens' is a robust, widely spreading selection of English yew with undulating branches and nodding lateral shoots. Its long, dark-green, sickle-shaped needles are held in two ranks. Berries are rarely produced and only on older plants. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 2 feet (60 cm) tall and 6 feet (2 m) wide, an annual growth rate of 6 - 8 inches (15 - 20 cm), mostly outward. 'Repandens' is a very popular choice for a large, ground-covering conifer.
Samuel B. Parsons & Sons nurseries of New York, New York, USA is credited with introducing this cultivar to the nursery trade in the late 1880s. In his 1923 book, Dwarf and Slow-growing Conifers, Murray Hornibrook speculates that this is possible cultivar of Taxus canadensis, based on hardiness in upstate New York and loose-scaled winter buds.
