This beautiful Mexican native has a broad, spreading crown with strong, horizontal branches and delicate, weeping branchlets. The bark is shreddy. It is a large evergreen tree growing to 40 m tall and with a trunk of 1-3 m diameter. Thin needle like leaves are spirally arranged but twisted at the base to lie in two horizontal ranks, 1-2 cm long and 1-2 mm broad. The cones are ovoid, 1.5-2.5 cm long and 1-2 cm broad.