About the Yew1

[David Salmon]

The Gymnosperm Library of the University Bonn website says, "The species of
Taxus are more geographically than morphologically separable; they were all
treated by Pilger (3) as subspecies of T. baccata."  They all have much the
same properties, although various species prefer various locales.

Their range extends from Japan to India, Iran to Europe, as well as Americas.
Taxus Linnaeus 1753
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/ta/ta/

T. baccata is the common European yew.
Taxus baccata Linnaeus
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/ta/ta/baccata.htm

T. sumatrana appears from the range descriptions to be the variety of yew
found in India.
Taxus sumatrana (Miquel) de Laubenfels 1978
http://www.botanik.uni-bonn.de/conifers/ta/ta/sumatrana.htm

But Indian sources speak of also of t. baccata, sometimes described as t.
wallachiana
Basic information on Bhutan's Himalayan yew (Taxus baccata)
http://www.fao.org/docrep/X5335e/x5335e08.htm
Taxus Wallachiana
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:Q6U1WJ9iL9s:www.cites.org/CITES/eng/ctt
ee/plants/10/PC10-13-3.pdf+taxus+baccata+India&hl=en [check the .pdf file
avail. from google]

Question: If the word for "yew" has Indo-European or PIE roots, do the
Indo-Iranian or Sanskrit words for "yew" also fit this theory?  (I don't
know what those words are; no translation for "yew" is given in the Sanskrit
online dictionaries I've consulted.)

I have noticed that the discussion of IE and PIE on this list generally
ignores the Indo- side of PIE and IE word analysis.  Why is this?
Unfamiliarity with that area?

Respectfully, a lurker,

David Salmon