The Two Yews of Belgrade Cathedral

Two yews flank the gate into Belgrade Cathedral's courtyard, one on each side of the entrance on Kneza Sime Markovića street, and between them they demonstrate something most visitors never think to check: yews come in two sexes, and these are one of each. The slightly taller tree, at 13.3 metres, is male; the shorter one, 11.8 metres, is female, and unlike most paired ornamental plantings nobody chose them to match on purpose, they were simply planted together around the turn of the 20th century and grew into their roles. Both were formally protected as natural monuments in 1979, valued specifically for being unusually large, healthy specimens of a species rarely found this size inside a dense city center rather than out in a forest or a rural churchyard. The Cathedral itself, built between 1837 and 1840, is one of Belgrade's most visited churches, and its courtyard sees a steady stream of visitors who walk directly between the two trees without necessarily noticing that the one on their left and the one on their right are, in the plainest botanical sense, a couple.