Yew age estimating

[Ty Korrigan]

Here in Brittany it can be pretty warm and wet with 70cm of rainfall in our area.

Today I cleared up yew branches removed not by me but an agricultural contractor over a neighbourly dispute (another story)

One small yew was also felled and from this I cut a disk which is sitting on my table having had it's rings counted, 42 of them.

The diameter is 48cm having taken the circumference and divided by pi = 1.143

 

There is another yew, much larger whose DBH is 95cm and is still standing despite the neighbours complaints.

So I am trying to calculate the age of this yew based on the growth of the younger felled tree.

If I take the 95cm and divide by 1.143 = 80.5 years

Is this a reasonable way to estimate the age?

Seems very low for such a large yew but the climate here really is much warmer than say Sussex where yews are abundant.

Now yews are very rare here and so I don't get to work on them often.

This disk freshly cut had a strong acidic smell.

Not too unpleasant though, more like stale cider vinegar. I had to drive with the window open it was so pungent.

Reminded me of Lucky Elevens saw pants when wet...

Just to be clear, I did not prune this yew.

    Stuart

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Ty Korrigan

[PeteB]

Not a bad way of calculation without the core test and dendro count! Size is a total guess agin a count!

[Squaredy]

12 minutes ago, Ty Korrigan said:

Here in Brittany it can be pretty warm and wet with 70cm of rainfall in our area.

Today I cleared up yew branches removed not by me but an agricultural contractor (another story)

One small yew was also felled and from this I cut a disk which is sitting on my table having had it's rings counted, 42 of them.

The diameter is 48cm having taken the circumference and divided by pi = 1.143

 

There is another yew, much larger whose DBH is 95cm and is still standing despite the neighbours complaints.

So I am trying to calculate the age of this yew based on the growth of the younger felled tree.

If I take the 95cm and divide by 1.143 = 80.5 years

Is this a reasonable way to estimate the age?

Seems very low for such a large yew but the climate here really is much warmer than say Sussex where yews are abundant.

    Stuart

 

 

Don’t most trees slow their rate of growth as they age?  In which case it is likely to be older than your estimate.

[gobbypunk]

No matter how old it is ,its a real nice tree totally worth milling if it does come down but I would just leave it its totally cool

[Mark Bolam]

Big rings Stu.

I reckon 80-ish isn’t far out.

 

Or 600 on Ebay.

[Excels1or]

Sounds about right mate. Most trees i take the diameter x 3.14 ÷ 2.5. Obviously yew is far slower growing.

[Dan Maynard]

Yew is famously slow growing, except when it's not.

 

Had one bushy monster in a garden and the spec was flat top it back to gutter height, that needed the bar length of my 201 to do the stem. Growth rings 5mm or so like your one there.

[AJStrees]

Nice sized tree. From what I have read yew grows fast depending on varying factors and sometimes goes on holiday and hardly grows. So I think it makes it a lot harder to determine the age of yew specifically. My guess is that its more than 80 years judging by the size of it. 👍