Mexican Beech

The Mexican Beech or Haya (Fagus mexicana) is a species of beech endemic to northeastern Mexico, where it occurs from southwest Tamaulipas south to Hidalgo and Puebla; it is restricted to high altitude cloud forests in mountains. It is a deciduous tree, reaching heights of 25-40 m tall and up to 1 m trunk diameter. It is closely related to the American Beech F. grandifolia, and is treated as a subspecies of it by some (particularly U.S) authors (as Fagus grandifolia subsp. mexicana (Martínez) E. Murray); however, Mexican literature generally treats it as a distinct species.

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.