acxoyatl (CmpRG)

The acxoyatl (acxoyate), which seems to be related closely to the Mexican fir known as the oyametl (oyamel), is described by Dr. Hernández as having a chestnut-colored root, and compares it branches to those of the sago palm. These branches bear “minute winged leaves [are] like a pine." According to John F. Schwaller, branches from the acxoyatl were used along with other fir boughs in a ritual that occurred during the month known as Panquetzaliztli called acxoyatemaliztli. The gathered branches were arranged in a certain way, and this became “a place where individuals could place thorns that had been used for personal sacrifice and thus were covered in blood.” See Hernández, Dr. Francisco, Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus, seu, Plantarum animalium mineralium Mexicanorum historia (also known as The Mexican Treasury; Rome : Vitale Mascardi, 1651), 348, https://www.loc.gov/item/2021667095/; and also Varey, Simon, ed., The Mexican Treasury: The Writings of Dr. Francisco Hernández (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000). John F. Schwaller gleans information about the ritual use of the branches from Sahagún’s Primeros Memoriales in The Fifteenth Month: Aztec History in the Rituals of Panquetzaliztli (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019).