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Hybrid yew cannot be called reliably fire resistant: three sources warn against it, while Michigan State recommends it.
The USDA Forest Service and state Firewise programs rate hybrid yew “Not Firewise,” the worst of four ratings. Ohio State University Extension places it in the high-flammability band of a five-point scale, one step below very high. Virginia Cooperative Extension also rates it high, the highest of its three flammability bands. Together, those three assessments argue against treating the shrub as a fire-resistant choice.
Michigan State University Extension reaches the opposite conclusion. Its binary list considers hybrid yew wildfire-resistant and recommends it specifically for Michigan’s climate. Unlike the other sources, that list does not divide plants into several degrees of flammability. The sources also address different regions, but their different scales and regional premises do not establish why their conclusions conflict.
Hybrid yew is an evergreen shrub in the Taxaceae family, reaching about six feet at maturity and hardy to USDA zone 5a. Its poisonous foliage appears in more than one source description, but none of the findings presented connects that trait to fire behavior. For a homeowner, the safest reading is that Michigan offers regional support for the plant, while the eastern US, Ohio, and Virginia guidance gives a clear warning against relying on it for fire-resistant landscaping.
Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 921 is an Ohio publication that describes Ohio fire seasons and landscape conditions and labels nativity to Ohio. FireApproved publishes 352 exact source-owning plant records from its eight rated tables. This historical publication scope does not assert current extension endorsement or that a listed plant suits every Ohio site.
Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.
2. Why this plant is relevant here
State distribution
Documented in DC, DE, MD, NJ, OH, PA, WV.
Native range
Introduced / established
1 sourced range or established record. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness
Documented range 4–7.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
Legal-list status
Seed-list status
Reported invasive here
Broader regional context
Federal context
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
Plant hardiness evidence
These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA
Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value
is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping
statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.
Source prints 5 · single-value meaning unresolved · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Taxus xmedia · exact match.
Source location: Cold Hardiness Zone field in the recovered selector record.
Not used for comparison: The recovered selector prints one Cold Hardiness Zone value but does not define it as a minimum threshold or a one-zone range.
4–7 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated
Source taxon: Taxus xmedia · exact match.
Source location: Table 1, shrub row.
Where its sources say to plant it
Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating.
They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.
Eastern United States Fire Performance Plant Selector: Landscape Zone 2 — 5–10 ft from the structure; maintained lawn or fuel breaks, with easily ignited evergreens avoided [Fire Performance Plant Selector landscape zone] (with its avoid rating)
Firewise Landscaping: do not plant within 5 ft of structures (keep out of Zone 1) [OSU B921 source-category siting] (with its avoid rating)
The evidence
Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself
(a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or
republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.
