B. Papp szerk.: Studia Botanica Hungarica 34. 2003 (Budapest, 2003)

Debreczy, Zsolt; Rácz, István: A re-assessment of the new taxa of firs (Abies Mill.) reported from Mexico in 1995

cies are typically pruinose blue (not green) with wide cyathiform "wing shaped" (not flabellate) cone scales with elongated (not short) base section, its bracts are slightly enclosed or occasionally finely exserted, (not short, "sessile"), with finely protruding (not absent) tip. Discovery: the species is known so far only from a wide valley about 10 km directly northeast of Ixtlán de Juarez, toward the place called Portillo, at an altitude of about 2,700 m. We first visited this site in December 1991 and later on February 4, 1992. Faced with logging roads, often muddy and with many divisions, we asked the help of Mr Gustavo Santiago Ramirez, a native of Ixtlán (then a biology student at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Ciudad de Mexico) to help us in exploring the area. During our second trip with the local commissariat and with the guidance of Sr Ignacio Crisoho, we made collections of a fir we considered to be Abies hickelii from a distance, but curious because of its green cone-inflorescences (DRB # 32957a, Fig. 17). On the basis of the different shape of the bracts and green colour of the strobiles, we suspected that it was a new species and decided to make a new collection later. On June 30, 1994, we made a third trip to the area and we obtained full size cones, which proved it to be a new species to science. Finally, in October, Mr Gustavo Santiago Ramirez (DRB #41300) collected fully developed cones for further study. The cones this time of the year seemed to be mature, but still green. This new fir of the humid cloud forest region ("bosque mesofilo de montana") grows on steep slopes in rich, mixed evergreen forests, associating with 65 (or more) species, including Alnus glabrata Fern., Arbutus xalapensis H., B. et K., Clethra mexicana (Lindl.) DC., Comarostaphylis conzattii Small/arguta Zucc, Cornus disciflora Moc. ex Sessé ex DC, Crusea coccinea DC, Gaultheria hirtiflora Benth., G. acuminata Schltdl. et Cham., Quercus castanea Nee, Q. crassifolia H., B. et K., Q. laurina Humb. et Bonpk, Senecio andrieuxii DC Completion of a vegetation profile of the habitat is in progress. More study is necessary to establish the full distribution of the species. Conservation: the habitat of this distinct, rare species is very important to preserve. Mr Ramirez, in collaboration with Dr Enrique Martinez y Obeja (Instituto Tecnológico de Oaxaca) works to secure conservation land around the habitat of the species and conduct further investigation of the distribution and habitat of the species. Seeds will be distributed from Ixtlán later. Participants in field work: Sr Ignacio Crisoho (Commisariat, Ixtlán de Juarez), Dr Gyöngyvér Biró, Dr Zsolt Debreczy, Dr István Rácz, (IDRI and Hung. Nat. Hist. Museum, Budapest, Hungary), Vince Zsigmond (University of Horticulture, Budapest, Hungary), Mr Gustavo Santiago Ramirez (SERBO Inc., Oaxaca).