text: Distribution and habitat Montezuma cypress is primarily a riparian tree, growing along upland riversides, but can also be found next to springs and marshes. It occurs from , in Mexico mainly in highlands at  in altitude. T. mucronatum is very drought-tolerant and fast-growing and favors climates that are rainy throughout the year or at least with high summer rainfall.
  Taxodium mucronatum is native to much of Mexico as far south as the highlands of southern Mexico. Two disjunct populations exist in the United States.  One is in the Rio Grande Valley of southernmost Texas, while the other is in southern New Mexico, near Las Cruces. Within Guatemala, the tree is restricted to Huehuetenango Department.
  Culture
  The sabino became the national tree of Mexico in 1910. The tree is sacred to the native peoples of Mexico, and is featured in the Zapotec creation myth. To the Aztecs, the combined shade of an āhuēhuētl and a pōchōtl (Ceiba pentandra) metaphorically represented a ruler's authority.  According to legend, Hernán Cortés wept under an ahuehuete in Popotla after suffering defeat during the Battle of La Noche Triste.
  This plant is mentioned in the 2015 short story "Rivers" by John Keene, which reimagines the story of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.