Tuesday 12 November 2013

Cephalotaxaceae

You have developed into a wide grouping of fairly small conifers, which produce a few large berries as each of the female cones matures.  As the berries are large, the group has acquired the nickname the 'plum yews' - the fruit really does look remarkably like a plum, which is a wonderful example of convergent evolution.

They are found all across South East Asia, where they have mostly been used for logging.

Recently however, they have been found to produce some toxins (which presumably evolved to stop herbivorous animals predating upon them) which may have some use as an anti-cancer medicine.  Contrary to expectation, this has not led to farming of the plants (possibly because they take so long to grow), but instead to widespread exploitation of wild stock, resulting in the possibility of extinction precisely because they are useful to humans.

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