How Britain’s oldest tree became ‘sexually ambiguous’

The Fortingall yew in Perthshire has started to produce red berries, suggesting a change of sex in one of its branches. It's an unusual - but not unprecedented - switch

After possibly 5,000 years alive, doing anything other than dying would be a surprise. But Britain's oldest tree is very much alive - and has amazed observers by apparently changing sex.

Fortingall yew in Perthshire is justly famous as one of the oldest living things in Europe, although no one knows its true age because its most ancient parts have decayed and disappeared.