This family is at least as old as the Jurassic, with extant genera recognizable by the Upper Cretaceous. This family is represented by the genus Cephalotaxus . These plants are mostly dioecious trees or shrubs with spirally arranged to two-ranked, needlelike leaves. Pollen cones contain 3-8 pollen sacs per microsporophyll and seed cones are decussately arranged with 2 ovules per bract. Only one ovule matures into an olive-like seed.
Pollen grains are nonsaccate.
The fossil record of this group is relatively small, but extends from the Jurassic to the Recent. While in extant Cephalotaxaceae single ovules develop from cones, fossil relatives such as Palissya show numerous ovules on the bract-scale complex. See text for details. Taxaceous plants are first reported from the Jurassic. Their relationships to the transition conifers are less clear than are those of other families.