Check out this old osage!

[upstatenybowyer]

Taxus baccata (English Yew) is everywhere. 

[Pat B]

Upstate, are you sure it's not Taxus canadensis?

[LittleBen]

Never seen a single Osage in upstate NY. Granted I've never lived West of Rome. But never seen it on LI, or in the capital region either.

Nice find.

I'm sure you're joking about English yew ... also never seen English yew, I think it might be Canadian Yew if it's wild or Irish yew if it's in landscaping.

[MulchMaker]

I've got to learn my trees. Id love to work some. For me this is a "free" hobby so I can spend as much time as I like looking for stuff like bow staves and arrow shoot shafts etc. but with all the wood around me I won't buy a stave, I figure if I'm ever on vacation I might pick up a sapling stave if it's not available around here. But if there is Osage and yew in NY, I'll have to spend some time looking around for it. Thanks for the info upsatenybowyer

[upstatenybowyer]

Upstate, are you sure it's not Taxus canadensis?

Quite sure. T. baccata is planted everywhere around Rochester as an ornamental tree. There's lots of Asian and Irish as well. You can tell the English variety because it grows straight up with a singular trunk. There's a park here with a 15 acre area called Yew Hill. It's all T. baccata, enough to arm a medieval army!