''Abies religiosa'', the oyamel fir or sacred fir,
(known as in
Spanish) is a
fir
Firs (''Abies'') are a genus of 48–56 species of evergreen coniferous trees in the family (biology), family Pinaceae. They are found on mountains throughout much of North America, North and Central America, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The ...
native to the
mountain
A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited Summit (topography), summit area, and ...
s of central and southern
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
(
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt,
Sierra Madre del Sur
The Sierra Madre del Sur is a mountain range in southern Mexico, extending from southern Michoacán east through Guerrero, to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in eastern Oaxaca.
Geography
The Sierra Madre del Sur joins with the Eje Volcánico Transv ...
) and western
Guatemala
Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...
. It grows at high altitudes of in
cloud forest
A cloud forest, also called a water forest, primas forest, or tropical montane cloud forest (TMCF), is a generally tropical or subtropical, evergreen, montane, moist forest characterized by a persistent, frequent or seasonal low-level cloud c ...
s with cool, humid summers and dry winters in most of its habitat regime. In the state of
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
, it grows with precipitation all year long. The tree is resistant to regular winter snowfalls.
Names
The Spanish name comes from the Nahuatl word ''oyametl'' (''oya'', "to
thresh
Thresh may refer to:
*Threshing, in agriculture
**Threshing machine
* A minor character in the novel ''The Hunger Games'' and its film adaptation
* Thresh (gamer), handle of esports player Dennis Fong
See also
* Thrash (disambiguation)
Thrash m ...
"; ''metl'', "
agave"; literally "threshing agave"). It is also called (
Christmas tree
A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern ...
) in Mexico. The English name derives from the
binomial
Binomial may refer to:
In mathematics
*Binomial (polynomial), a polynomial with two terms
* Binomial coefficient, numbers appearing in the expansions of powers of binomials
*Binomial QMF, a perfect-reconstruction orthogonal wavelet decomposition
...
''Abies
religiosa'', literally "religious fir". This comes from the use of its cut foliage in religious festivals (notably at Christmas) and in churches in Mexico.
Description
''Abies religiosa'' is a medium-sized to large
evergreen
In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
coniferous
Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...
tree
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
growing to tall with a trunk diameter of up to . The
leaves
A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are needle-like, flattened, long and wide by thick, dark green above, and with two blue-white bands of
stoma
In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...
ta below; the leaf apex is acute. The leaf arrangement is spiral on the shoot, but with each leaf variably twisted at the base so they lie flat to either side of and above the shoot, with none below the shoot. The shoots are reddish-brown, hairless or with scattered
pubescence.
The
cones are long and broad, dark blue-purple before maturity; the scale bracts are purple or greenish, of moderate length, with the tips exposed in the closed cone. The winged
seed
A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...
s are released when the cones disintegrate at maturity about 7–9 months after
pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds ...
. Trees from the western end of the range on
Nevado de Colima,
Jalisco
Jalisco (, , ; Nahuatl: Xalixco), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Jalisco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco ; Nahuatl: Tlahtohcayotl Xalixco), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal En ...
have cones with larger, reflexed bract scales (similar to
noble fir cones); these are sometimes treated as a separate species, ''Abies colimensis''.
Significance
The sacred fir is the preferred tree for the
monarch butterfly
The monarch butterfly or simply monarch (''Danaus plexippus'') is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. Other common names, depending on region, include milkweed, common tiger, wanderer, and black-veined brown. It ...
(''Danaus plexippus'') to reside in colonies during its hibernation in the forests of the
Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt. Although monarch butterflies are known in other parts of the southern
Mexican highlands as some specimens do not
migrate
Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration
* Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another
** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...
, the bulk of them gather in a few protected fir forests in the
Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve near the towns of
Angangueo
Angangueo () is a municipality located in far eastern Michoacán state in central Mexico noted for its history of mining and its location in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve. The municipal seat is the Mineral de Angangueo. It is located in ...
(
Michoacán
Michoacán, formally Michoacán de Ocampo (; Purépecha: ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Michoacán de Ocampo ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of ...
) and Avándaro (
State of Mexico
The State of Mexico ( es, Estado de México; ), officially just Mexico ( es, México), is one of the 32 federal entities of the United Mexican States. Commonly known as Edomex (from ) to distinguish it from the name of the whole country, it is ...
), from December to March.
The wood of the sacred fir is rather soft and thus not very suited for
woodworking
Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, woodworking joints, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning.
History
Along with Rock (geology), stone, clay and animal parts, ...
. Nonetheless, its distribution is decreasing because of
logging
Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.
Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
for
fuel
A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
and other
human-related disturbances.
A 2012 paper by Cuauhtemoc Saenz-Romero among others, published in ''Forest Ecology and Management'' found that "the area suitable for the oyamel is likely to diminish by 96 percent by 2090, and disappear completely within the
onarch Butterfly Biospherereserve."
Gallery
References
*Liu, T. S. (11 November 1971). ''A Monograph of the genus Abies''. National Taiwan University.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q378592
religiosa
Plants described in 1830
Trees of Durango
Trees of Guerrero
Trees of Hidalgo (state)
Trees of Jalisco
Trees of the State of Mexico
Trees of Michoacán
Trees of Morelos
Trees of Puebla
Trees of Veracruz
Flora of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt
Trees of temperate climates
Least concern plants
Trees of Guatemala
Flora of the Sierra Madre del Sur