Although the genus Taxus includes eleven species which are spread widely across the northern hemisphere in many countries of North America, Europe and Asia, unfortunately the yews do not count among those "dominant" conifer species which occur in large areas of single-species forest or which are densely distributed.
雖然全世界紅豆杉屬植物有十一種，廣泛分佈北半球北美、歐洲、亞洲許多國家，可惜紅豆杉在針葉樹中卻並非具有大片純林、或密集分佈的「優勢樹種」。