Loth Salla (Taxus wallichiana)

Taxus wallichiana (Photo by: Rabin Suwal)

It is a medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree growing to 20 m tall, similar to Taxus baccata and sometimes treated as a subspecies of it. The shoots are green at first, becoming brown after three or four years. The leaves are thin, flat, slightly falcate (sickle-shaped), 1.5–2.7 cm long and 2 mm broad, with a softly mucronate apex; they are arranged spirally on the shoots but twisted at the base to appear in two horizontal ranks on all except for erect lead shoots. It is dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate plants; the seed cone is highly modified, berry-like, with a single scale developing into a soft, juicy red aril 1 cm diameter, containing a single dark brown seed 7 mm long. The pollen cones are globose, 4 mm diameter, produced on the undersides of the shoots in early spring.

The tree has medicinal use in Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine. Taxus wallichiana is also a source of the chemical precursors to the anticancer drug paclitaxel. This species is also used as fuel wood by the local communities.

Local Name	:	Loth Salla
English Name	:	Himalayan Yew
Family	:	Taxaceae
Scientific Name	:	Taxus baccata sub sps. wallichiana
Habit	:	Tree up to 20 m ht.
Fruiting Period	:
Habitat	:	North facing Moist slopes at higher altitude 1000-3500 m
Occurrence in Nepal	:	Through out high hill and mountain belt in Nepal.
Use	:	Medicine, fuel wood