An analysis of the distribution patterns of 124 Mexican gymnosperm species was undertaken, in order to detect the Mexican areas with high species richness and endemism, and with this information to propose areas for conservation. Our study includes an analysis of species richness, endemism and distributional patterns of Mexican species of gymnosperms based on three different area units (states, biogeographic provinces and grid-cells of 1°· 1°latitude/longitude). The richest areas in species and endemism do not coincide; in this way, the Sierra Madre Oriental province, the state of Veracruz and a grid-cell located in the state of Oaxaca were the areas with the highest number of species, whereas the Golfo de Mé xico province, the state of Chiapas and a grid-cell located in this state were the richest areas in endemic species. A weighted endemism and corrected weighted endemism indices were calculated, and those grid-cells with high values in both indices and with high species richness were considered as hotspots; these grid-cells are mainly located in Southern and Central Mexico. Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006Fig. 1 (a) The 32 Mexican states. Abbreviations are: AGS = Aguascalientes, BC = Baja California, BCS = Baja California Sur, CAMP = Campeche, CHIS = Chiapas, CHIH = Chihuahua, COA = Coahuila, COL = Colima, DF = Distrito Federal, DUR = Durango, GTO = Guanajuato, GRO = Guerrero, HGO = Hidalgo, JAL = Jalisco, MEX = Mé xico, MICH = Michoacá n, MOR = Morelos, NAY = Nayarit, NL = Nuevo. Leó n, OAX = Oaxaca, PUE = Puebla, QR = Quintana Roo, QRO = Queré taro, SLP = San Luis Potosí, SIN = Sinaloa, SON = Sonora, TAB = Tabasco, TAMP = Tamaulipas, TLA = Tlaxcala, VER = Veracruz, YUC = Yucatá n, ZAC = Zacatecas; (b) the 19 biogeographic provinces of Mexico according to Arriaga et al. (1997). Abbreviations are: apn = Altiplano Norte, aps = Altiplano Sur, bal = Depresió n del Balsas, bc = Baja California, clf = California, cab = Del Cabo, chi = Los Altos de Chiapas, gm = Golfo de Mé xico, nus = Soconusco, oax = Oaxaca, pac = Costa del Pacífico, ptn = Peté n, sme = Sierra Madre Oriental, smo = Sierra Madre Occidental, sms = Sierra Madre del Sur, son = Sonorense, tam = Tamaulipeca, vol = Eje Volcá nico, yuc = Yucatá n b