Taxodium mucronatum Ten.

The conservation of this species, known in Mexico as 'El Ahuehuete' and declared the 'national tree', is concerned with two different elements. The first element constitutes its populations in the wild, in natural or semi-natural habitat. These are the trees IUCN- SC is in the first instance concerned with. Aside from these, there are quite a large number of 'monumental' trees most of which were planted a long time ago; some of these date back to pre-Columbian times as the Aztecs and Mayas already venerated these trees and planted them. As is the case in other countries with ancient conifers but no written record giving sufficient evidence, the natural status of some trees now growing in man-made habitat remains uncertain. They could either be relicts of a destroyed natural vegetation or they could have been planted. Martnez (1950) gave a comprehensive account of these veteran trees, with many photographs. There is an obvious conservation concern for these trees as well. Some of them, and notably the famous 'Tule tree' near Oaxaca, are well protected but nevertheless threatened mainly due to a sinking water table as a result of human interference. The same is true of natural stands of Taxodium mucronatum along watercourses negatively affected by dams upstream, e.g. in southern Sonora (Felger et al. 2001). A recent assessment of the conservation status of this species in Mexico (Alanis Flores and Favela Lara 2002) concluded that it is not threatened with extinction. In Texas, the species is listed as endangered for the State; in Guatemala its status is unknown.