Kingdom Plantae Family Fagaceae Scientific name Fagus mexicana Rank Species | Order Fagales Genus Fagus Higher classification Beech | |
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Similar Beech, Fagus japonica, Fagus hayatae, Fagaceae, Fagus engleriana | ||
Fagus mexicana, the Mexican Beech or Haya, is a species of beech endemic to northeastern and central Mexico, where it occurs from southwest Tamaulipas south to Hidalgo and Puebla. It is restricted to high altitude cloud forests in the Sierra Madre Oriental.
It is closely related to the American Beech Fagus grandifolia, and is usually treated as Fagus grandifolia subsp. mexicana (Martínez) E.Murray.
Description
Fagus mexicana is a deciduous tree, reaching heights of 25–40 m tall and up to 1 m trunk diameter. The leaves are alternate, simple, with a slightly toothed margin, usually smaller than those of American Beech, 5–8 cm long and 3–5 cm broad. The buds are long and slender, 15–25 mm long and 2–3 mm thick.
The flowers are small catkins which appear shortly after the leaves in spring. The seeds are small triangular nuts 15–20 mm long and 7–10 mm wide at the base; there are two nuts in each cupule, maturing in the autumn 6–7 months after pollination.
