Taxaceae -- the yew family (5/17-20; widely distributed, mostly northern hemisphere)
Plants seed plants, dioecious (rarely monoecious)
Habit shrubs or trees
Leaves alternate; simple and linear or needle-like, decurrent on twigs
Pollen borne on strobili (look like cones) with several flattened sterile basal scales and 4-32 spirally arranged or whorled, peltate or ± flattened structures called sporangiophores that each bear 2-9 pollen sacs
Ovules solitary or in pairs, borne on reduced cones (one scale) terminal on short shoots
Seeds solitary, surrounded by a green or red fleshy aril