Abies vejarii
Abies vejarii - Vejar’s fir description
Scientific name: Abies vejarii Martínez 1942
Synonyms: Abies vejarii var. vejarii, Abies vejarii subsp. vejarii
Infraspecific taxa: Abies vejarii var. macrocarpa Martínez 1948
Common names: Vejar’s fir, Monterrey fir, Vejar fir, Hayarin, Abeto de Vejar (Spanish)
Description
Tree to 40 m tall, with trunk to 0.5(-1) m in diameter. Bark gray, becoming browner and breaking up into scales and then ridges and furrows with age. Branchlets hairless or slightly hairy in the shallow grooves between the leaf bases. Buds 3-5 mm long, thickly coated with resin. Needles arranged to the sides of and angled forward above the twigs, or radiating all around on branches bearing seed cones (1-)1.5-2.5(-3) cm long, dark green to waxy grayish green above, the tip bluntly to sharply pointed. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side touching the lower epidermis near the margin, usually with 7-10 broken lines of stomates over the surface above and with 5-10 lines in each white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 5-10 mm long, red. Seed cones oblong to almost spherical, 6-10(-15) cm long, 4-5(-7) cm across, dark purple when young, maturing blackish brown. Bracts a little shoter to a little longer than the minutely fuzzy seed scales and hidden by them or sticking up between them. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body 8-12 mm long, the wing a little shorter to a little longer. Cotyledons four to six.
The species name honors Octavio Vejar Vázquez, who was Mexico’s minister of public education, responsible for promotion of the arts and sciences, during the presidency of Manuel Avila Camacho (1940-1946), when it was discovered and described.
Sierra Madre Oriental of northeastern Mexico from southwestern Coahuila to southwestern Tamaulipas. Mixed with pines (Pinus), oaks (Quercus), and other conifers and hardwoods on mountain slopes and in high canyons; 2,000-3,000(3,300) m.
Conservation Status
Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable
Varieties:
Abies vejarii ‘Mountain Blue’
Abies vejarii ‘Serpent’
Attribution from: Conifers Garden