These are small evergreen trees or shrubs approximately 6–12 m tall. The bark is reddish brown, thin and scaly. Individual trees are either male or female with dioecious flowers. Bark and more recently leaves and twigs of T. wallichiana and other Taxus species are harvested for extraction of paclitaxel, 10-DAB and other taxanes. Although not rare Taxus species do not form thick populations and occur only in patches under other species. Also they must be mature (c. 100 years old) to be large enough for exploitation of the bark. At this age, with a trunk diameter of 25 cm, the bark is removed during May through August for T. brevifolia, the first identified source of paclitaxel. The harvest method is either pruning or shearing.

Early clinical studies of Taxol created high demand for bark of the species. The harvest approach was destructive and required 52,000–78,000 yew trees annually during the early 1990s. Approximately 10,000 kg of pacific yew bark was required to make 1 kg of taxol with the bark of at least six trees required for a single treatment dose. Concerns regarding the sustainability of T. brevifolia harvests spurred development of methods to synthesize paclitaxel from 10-DAB also found in other Taxus species including T. wallichiana. This new development not only increased the number of species from which to derive paclitaxel, but also expanded the extraction of taxanes to leaves, a more sustainable source of taxanes than bark. Although leaves are needed in large quantities, methods of extraction have become increasingly efficient. By 1993, the amount of Taxus bark required to yield 1 kg paclitaxel was said to have been reduced from approximately 13,500 kg to 6,800 kg, the equivalent bark of some 1000 trees. Three tonnes of leaves are required to make 1 kg paclitaxel.

Slow growing, slow to regenerate and sensitive to canopy disturbance and fire, it appears that this species was declining in some parts of its range countries even before harvest for production of taxanes began. The high demand for bark and leaves for paclitaxel production resulted in a significant increase in the rate of harvest leading to population decline in China, India, Nepal and potentially elsewhere. Cultivation has been promoted in each of these countries, but as yet is not making a major contribution to T. wallichiana supplies. It is possible to fully synthesize Taxol. However its molecular structure is complex and its synthesis costly. As a result, harvest of wild or cultivated biomass remains more economically attractive to pharmaceutical companies than full synthesis.