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Scientific name: Abies vejarii Martínez 1942
Synonyms: Abies vejarii var. vejarii, Abies vejarii subsp. vejarii
Common names: Vejar’s fir, Monterrey fir, Vejar fir, Hayarin, Abeto de Vejar (Spanish)
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.
Red List Category & Criteria: Vulnerable
Although this variety is known from a number of localities, there are only four locations. Stands are susceptible to fires that could have a major impact and push the variety to a Critically Endangered listing in a short time.
No specific information is available about population size or trends. The most obvious threat to this taxon is the occurrence of devastating wildfires. It is not a commercial timber tree and logging, if it occurs, is limited.
Abies vejarii is a high mountain fir, occurring between (2,000-)2,800 m and 3,300 m a.s.l. on steep mountain slopes near the summits or in cool ravines. The soils are usually poor in humus content, but moist; the climate is cool, with relatively dry summers and wet winters. The species is commonly associated with various species of Pinus and with Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca, also with Quercus spp. On the Cerro Potosí it occurs with Pinus hartwegii and Pinus flexilis var reflexa.
This species and its infraspecific taxa are relatively rare trees with limited distribution, consequently their importance as timber trees is negligible. The species (including its infraspecific taxa) has been introduced to cultivation in the USA and Europe, but it remains restricted to arboreta and other plant collections despite its attractiveness and suitability especially in regions with warm summers and mild, wet winters. Cultivation from wild origin seed of var. mexicana would under appropriate circumstances contribute to ex situ conservation of this threatened taxon.
Some stands of this taxon occur within protected areas, such as on Cerro Potosí.
Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.
