I've had my bursera for about ten years here in northeast Ohio, growing it as a bonsai. It prefers to be outside in the sunniest possibl...Read Moree place during the summer. As winter approaches, it's leaves turn yellow and drop. I bring it indoors for the winter dormant period. No water at all from November through April. This is a very drought resistant plant, more so than many cacti. The plant needs lots of light after it breaks dormancy. I use fluorescent or LED floodlights. Do not move it outside until the nights are warm. It can be grown from cuttings, but it is not easy. I have had the best results from softwood cuttings taken in midsummer.
The sap is very fragrant, and the plant smell wonderful when pruning or taking cuttings. The sap from wounds to the stem forms beads of incense. Since I keep my trees pruned back to less than 18 inches, I don't get enough incense to be worth collecting.
The plant has bloomed a couple times and set seed. the flowers are small and greenish white and may go unnoticed. The ripened fruit is quite colorful, rusty red and orange.
This is a very attractive plant and easy to grow. Just treat it like a prickly pear cactus. It will get very large unless it is trimmed back hard several times a year.
I have a few fagaroides growing in my yard in NE Phoenix. I love burseras, and the scent is really striking, especially after rains. The ...Read Morefat trunk and peeling bark make the plant quite interesting. They like well drained soil and full sun. Extra water in the summer is a good idea (we're hot and dry except for our monsoon season which has been a real dud the past several years). Very little water in the winter when they are dormant. They are cold/drought deciduous. They aren't really picky otherwise. Obviously, avoid cold areas with Fagaroides. They are native to extreme southern Arizona where a handfull survive where cold and rainfall are not limiting. Upper 20's is all they can take and you WILL damage them or kill them if it goes below that.
I have had Burseras of several species for over 25 years,
overall they are easy to grow but even easier to overgrow
too muc...Read Moreh water and or high nitrogen fertelizer produce long thin ugly atypical growth. The flowere usually appear sometime in the spring they are very small perhaps 3/16"
across at the maximum. Newly set seeds look like a green
pea around 1/4" diameter and I have seen no noticeable difference in those of different species. It takes close to a year for them to mature at which time the outer covering splits and falls away leaving the seed on the plant. The seeds when new are from a very bright yellow to a near day-glo red
size is around 5/16" long and 1/4" diameter in cross section the seeds are like a slightly rounded triangle and very hard
Another interesting papery-trunked caudiciform 'bonsai' tree, from N Mexico and part of the US bordering Mexico. It has small, slightly ...Read Morepalmate leaves about 1cm diameter or less that have a strong, herbaceous odor when crushed or handled. The tree tends to stay pretty low to the ground (1-5' tall) with a fat, swollen trunk. It's very drought tolerant, but grows faster if given water.
I've had my bursera for about ten years here in northeast Ohio, growing it as a bonsai. It prefers to be outside in the sunniest possibl...Read More
I have a few fagaroides growing in my yard in NE Phoenix. I love burseras, and the scent is really striking, especially after rains. The ...Read More
I have had Burseras of several species for over 25 years,
overall they are easy to grow but even easier to overgrow
too muc...Read More
Another interesting papery-trunked caudiciform 'bonsai' tree, from N Mexico and part of the US bordering Mexico. It has small, slightly ...Read More