An extension of the known range of the Mexican 

 bald cypress 



IKA I.. \\'|(.(.I\s 



During February and March of 1933 I had the privilege of 

 accompanying Dr. Forresl Shreveand Dr. T. D. Malleryof the 

 Carnegie Institution's Tucson Desert Laboratory on a field 

 trip into Sonora, Mexico. Near the southern limit of our explo- 

 ration we enquired about the character of the country east of t he 

 delta region of the Rio Yaqui, and Mr. Huffacker, an automo- 

 bile dealer at Obregon (formerly called Cajeme) told us that 

 there were a number of interesting trees and shrubs growing in 

 the low hills a few miles to the east and suggested that we swing 

 around the loop formed by the road which ran from Obregon 

 through Tesapaco, Cedros, and Queriego, thence back to Obre- 

 gon. 



We reached Cedros during the forenoon of March 5th and 

 there found a colony of about a dozen trees of Taxodium mu- 

 cronatum Tenore. The trees grew among granite boulders and 

 on the exposed country rock along the banks of the Rio Cedros. 

 The larger specimens were about one and a half meters in di- 

 ameter and from twenty to thirty meters high. The trunks were 

 straight, showed only slight buttresses at the bases, and began 

 to branch at distances varying from two to ten meters from the 

 ground. Most of them seemed to be healthy and thriving, but 

 no seedlings or trees under fifteen meters height were observed. 



Mexicans living in the village said that the trees were more 

 abundant and attained greater size farther up the stream in 

 the mountains toward the east. They did not know, however, 

 whether or not the tree occurred in Chihuahua. A second, smaller 

 colony was seen along the banks of the Rio Cedros about four 

 kilometers farther down the stream where we crossed it on our 

 way to Queriego. These individuals looked less healthy than 

 those at Cedros and were very much smaller and less sy metrical. 



Standley (1920) reported that the range of Taxodium mu- 

 cronatum extended from Sinaloa to Coahuila and southward 

 into Guatemala. Pilger (1926) stated that the trees grew be- 

 tween 1400 and 2300 meters altitude in the Mexican tableland, 



65 



