Synonyms :
Taxodium mucronatum Ten.
Taxodium montezumae Decaisne
T. mexicanum Carr.
Common Names :
Montezuma baldcypress,  Ahuehuete,  Pentamon,  Cipres,  Sabino,  Yucu,  Ndatura.
Introduction
General Botanical Characteristics:
Montezuma bald cypress is a large, native, semi deciduous to evergreen tree. Mature height usually ranges from 60 to 100 feet (18-30 m), but the oldest trees can be much taller:

a record height of 170 feet (51.8 m) has been reported for the Tree of Montezuma (Chapultepec Park, Mexico City) which was estimated as 700 years old.

The Montezuma bald cypress is better known for its massive, convoluted trunk than for its height. El Arbol del Tule (Oaxaca, Mexico), an individual at least 1,000 years old and possibly much older, is more than 50 feet (15 m) in diameter and has a circumference of 117.6 feet (35.84 m). Perimeter measures that include the bays and promontories of the buttressed trunk exceed 150 feet (45 m).

Montezuma bald cypress has a broad, spreading crown with strong, horizontal branches and delicate, weeping branch lets. The leaves are 0.24 to 0.48 inch (6-12 mm) long. The staminate strobili are borne in long, slender spikes. The ovulate cones are subglobose and 0.59 to 0.98 inch (1.5-2.5 cm) in diameter. The bark is shreddy. The roots of trees growing in standing water often send up conical projections ("knees") . Trees that experience periodic drying out, such as those growing along stream courses, apparently do not form knees .

The Aztec's Use of Ahuehuete
The boiled leaf brew is used for varicose veins and hemorrhoid, also as tonic for the heart especially problems with the mitral valve, for the lung, liver and kidney congestions, favors the elimination of retained liquids in the body (edema), lowers hypertension, relieves cough, difficulty in breathing and diahrrea. Applied as a poultice it favors the healing
(much faster and cleaner scar) of wounds.