Flowering and Fruiting - Pacific yew is dioecious. Male strobili are stalked, bud-like, pale yellow, and composed of 6 to 12 filamentous stamens, each with 5 to 9 anthers. They are abundant on the underside of branch sprays and usually appear in May or June. Female strobili are less abundant, greenish, and composed of several scales. They also are borne on the underside of branches. The fruit is an ovoid-oblong seed about 8 mm long, partially enveloped by a fleshy, berrylike, scarlet, cup-shaped disk called an aril. Pollen is dispersed by wind in the spring.

Seed Production and Dissemination - Fruits ripen from August to October of the same year that flowering occurs. Fruits either drop to the ground or are taken from trees by birds or rodents. Birds devour the fleshy arils and void the seeds which remain viable. Chipmunks and squirrels often take only the seeds. Rodents and some birds-nuthatches, for example-cache yew seeds, thus creating the clusters of yew seedlings observed in some areas. The seed [poisonous] is about 6 mm long with a depressed hilum, bony inner coat, and membranous outer seedcoat. Pacific yew is a prolific seeder.

Vegetative Reproduction - Pacific yew is capable of layering and often sprouts from stumps or rootstocks after the top has been killed or the tree cut. Layering usually occurs after branches or tree tops have been pressed to the ground for a prolonged period by large fallen trees or limbs, although occasional old yew trees can be found surrounded by a ring of well rooted branches that were apparently held down only by their own weight and the weight of snow in the winter.