I will add that there are NO other Yews growing near this volunteer yew, it has sprouted up a good distance from my Yew shrubs I'd tried to grow years ago.

did you forget a pic .... its imperative to an ID ...

the only alternative is for you to compare here: https://www.google.com/search?q=taxus+baccata+seedlings&client=firefox-b-1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjlt9nJuZTbAhUP0GMKHWnfCsMQ_AUICigB&biw=928&bih=721&dpr=0.9

though it will tell you if taxus.. you might need to wait a few years to perfect the baccata part ...

if you are going to leave a tiny babe till fall ... put in a giant stake so you remember what it there .. its easy to walk on them .. lol ...

ken

Yes, I forgot a pic. I was just "assuming" it was a T Baccatta because, I thought that the fancy shrub types had to be made from cuttings to get more of that type of Yew, and a seedling would be the tree form or Taxus Baccatta. I am guessing that's incorrect, right? I won't step on it because it is right where a fence is that is around our garbage cans, it is kinda impossible to step on there. I also have a Sassafras volunteer there, the birds likely have been up in the Pine trees above the fence and garbage cans and just crapping out all of these nice tree seeds onto the ground below :) I wanted a Sassafras tree for so long, I was always too late to collect seeds in fall, and I heard that they don't germinate easily, you kinda need an animal or bird to predigest the seeds anyway, so lucky me. I will try to remember to take a pic, but, it's only about 5 inches high now.

It could be Taxus canadensis.

Although I do wonder if it is a juniper...their seedlings are much more common.

Congrats on the volunteer Sassafras. I'd love to get those. They are native trees birds love that have great Fall color, but they don't transplant well.

Right edlincoln, about the Sassafras seedling, I am lucky a bird decided to crap out some seed under the Pines here, but, anyway, from looking online and seeing the Taxus Canadensis description, I'm really hoping for Taxus Baccatta genes here, but, of course it may just be a Taxus Canadensis. Junipers are really different in appearance to yews, so I'm not going to think about that much. I will try to remember to take a pic of this small 5-6 inch tall Yew, but, I'm really thinking you won't be able to tell if it is a Canadensis or Baccatta or whatever for quite a while.

Okay, here's the Yew, it looks like a Yew to me, glossy needles. It's under pine trees, but, I'm pretty sure it's a Yew.

Mmmm... it does look like Taxus but the needles look a bit pointy for the T baccata seedlings I'm familiar with. I get a lot on my allotment because I use leaves and woodchip from the local parks. Also, it looks as if the leading bud has been damaged at some stage. They're not usually multi stemmed at that size.

It's not likely a Baccatta floral, I could wish, but, if it's Taxus Canadensis, I am not sure about the form it would take on. I should've looked that up before posting this now.

This seedling hasn't been damaged as far as I know, I see new buds forming. But, those blue cans are the recycling cans, so maybe the collectors put the barrel down and it kinda crushed the seedling, but, I am not so sure, it looked fine to me. I am not knowledgeable about any yews, so if you can get a seedling shrub yew from a bird pooping out some seeds while in the pine tree, I may have a shrub yew, but, I had always thought that shrub yews had to be grafted or made from clippings of a "sport" of an odd duck yew that was copied by grafting from cuttings of a odd "sport" of a plant. If it's not a tree form Yew, I may not really want to keep it. My shrub yews have been eaten by some animal, likely deer, but, I never thought that deer would eat a Yew.

All it takes to make a Taxus baccata into a shrub is to remove the growing point repeatedly. After all it's a favourite hedge plant. The form is up to the gardener.

Parent plant may be visible nearby. More mature examples are easier to identify.

Taxus x media, perhaps. Needles similar to my now 4 foot seedling also brought by birds. Mine is showing a habit similar to 'Hicksii'.

tj

Could it be asparagus fern?

Okay in response to "all of the above" , I have looked up images for Taxus Canadensis, and the seedlings in all of the pics seemed to feature shrubs/trees with a MUCH more open branching form than my small little clump of yew PLANT. bOSSYVOSSY, THIS IS NO ASPARAGUS FERN, this is a small Yew. It just MAY be this Taxus X media tsugajunkie has posted about above, but, I thought that all named cultivars were "created" by cuttings, so the thought that I may have a "Hicksii" is really surprising. AS far as where my nearest hybrid yews are, they are about 700 feet from where this little sprout YEW is I am kinda surprised because I had deer eat many of these Yews, and they are thin and anemic looking. I was really hoping to get a "Taxus Baccatta" from this Yew seedling, but, I can see that it just isn't how YEW genetics works. I DID have a nice Brit send me a Taxus Baccatta about 5 years ago, and that small seedling died in our winter that year, so I'll just have to live without a Taxus Baccatta near a family members grave site.