Abies religiosa var. colimensis (Rushforth & Narave) Silba
Abies religiosa subsp. glaucescens (Roezl) Silba
Abies religiosa var. glaucescens Carrière
Abies religiosa var. hirtella (Kunth) Carrière
Abies religiosa var. lindleyana Carrière
Abies religiosa subsp. perotensis (Silba) Silba
Abies religiosa var. perotensis Silba
Abies tlapalcatuda Roezl
Picea glaucescens (Roezl) Gordon
Picea hirtella (Kunth) Loudon
Picea religiosa (Kunth) Loudon
Pinus hirtella Kunth
Pinus religiosa Kunth
Pinus religiosa var. minor Parl.
Abies religiosa, the oyamel firorsacred fir,[4] (known as oyamelinSpanish) is a fir native to the mountains of central and southern Mexico (Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Sierra Madre del Sur) and western Guatemala. It grows at high elevations of 2,100–4,100 metres (6,900–13,500 ft) in cloud forests with cool, humid summers and dry winters in most of its habitat regime. In the state of Veracruz, it grows with precipitation all year long. The tree is resistant to regular winter snowfalls.
The Spanish name oyamel comes from the Nahuatl word oyametl (oya, "to thresh"; metl, "agave"; literally "threshing agave"). It is also called árbol de Navidad (Christmas tree) in Mexico. The English name derives from the binomialAbies religiosa, literally "religious fir". This comes from the use of its cut foliage in religious festivals (notably at Christmas) and in churches in Mexico.[5]
Abies religiosa is a medium-sized to large evergreenconiferoustree growing to 25–50 m (82–164 ft) tall with a trunk diameter of up to 2 metres (6.6 ft). The leaves are needle-like, flattened, 1.5–3.5 cm (0.59–1.38 in) long and 1.5 mm (0.059 in) wide by 0.5 mm (0.020 in) thick, dark green above, and with two blue-white bands of stomata 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 8–16 cm (3.1–6.3 in) long and 4–6 cm (1.6–2.4 in) 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 seeds are released when the cones disintegrate at maturity about 7–9 months after pollination. Trees from the western end of the range on Nevado de Colima, Jalisco have cones with larger, reflexed bract scales (similar to noble fir cones); these are sometimes treated as a separate species, Abies colimensis.
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 [Monarch Butterfly Biosphere] reserve."[7][8]
^Timbers of the New World. Arno Press. 1943. p. 13. ISBN9780405028069. The specific epithet (religiosa) refers to the common use of the evergreen branches for decorations in churches.
