5000-year-old Scottish tree is changing gender

The oldest tree in Britain, and perhaps all of Europe, is supposedly undergoing a change in its sex, according to the Daily Mail.

The famous Fortingall Yew in Perthshire, Scotland, is thought to be as much as 5,000 years old. Male trees have small cones that release clouds of pollen during breeding time, while female trees have bright red berries. But last month, Botanists got the surprise of a lifetime when the tree produced berries.

The discovery came in the form of three red berries, which are a feature of female yew trees.

Max Coleman of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh explains that, as odd as it may seem, not only yews but other conifers as well have two separate sexes and can sometimes change from one sex to another. “In the Fortingall Yew it seems that one small branch in the outer part of the crown has switched and now behaves as female”, he blogged.

Now, you might argue that this is not technically the same thing as a “sex change”, but that is really only a matter of special understanding.

“Yews are normally either male or female, and in autumn and winter sexing yews is generally easy”, said Max Coleman, science communicator at the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh.

Although these trees have been known to have the ability of changing their sexes, the event is a rare and baffling one.

Evironmental stress may have triggered the sex change, although the tree appears healthy, Coleman told AFP. It is also assumed that a polluted environment will play a major part in such a transformation.

“It could be that the tree has undergone a relatively common occurrence, which is to grow a new “sport” that is morphologically different than its other parts”. Coleman said he and his colleagues now plan to continue observing and documenting the tree’s male and female features.