Fouquieria Species, Boojum Tree, Cirio

Growing well outdoors in the Bay Area for me. I have it in a 100% mineral mix of pumice, lava rock and calcined clay. No problems with ou...Read Morer heavy rains or frost this season. Caudex/trunk doubled in girth in one growing season.

Central Phoenix -- Surprisingly, Boojum tree grows rather well in pots. I have a plant that I acquired about 1995 as a finger-sized spec...Read Moreimen. It is now two feet tall -- I might actually live long enough to see it become a real tree? I keep the pot outside all year long in partial shade. I water it only a couple times a year, when the thornless hedgehog cactus in the pot with it starts to get too wrinkled. Otherwise it is dependent on what rain we get.

Bizarre giant tree, native to Baja California's slice of the Sonoran Desert, often found with the massive cardón cactus. Known as a cir...Read Moreio here where it's from. Also a couple of populations in the state of Sonora.

Looks like an inverted carrot, sometimes with high branches in the trunk. Studded with short lateral branches that carry the leaves, and then spines (which are the hard remnant that's left when the leaves fall).

Enjoys lots of sun at a relatively young age and appreciates regular water during the winter and spring when it's in leaf. Drought and/or summer-deciduous, approaching dormant... do not (over)water at this time.

Grows very different in a pot compared to the ground. Natural bonsais in habitat (growing in cracks in the rock or other small spaces) have the same squat, chunky look when their roots are confined.

Bizarrely beautiful I have visited them in their native forests in Baja California. The forest can look almost like italian cypre...Read Moress when the Boojum are in full leaf. The curling branches and leaders can look like arms reaching down to capture those passing beneath. They grow intermixed with Cardon cactus.... like a Sajuarro only five times bigger.
I have one growing in a pot for the last 10 years. It has gained about one foot of height in all that time. I do not treat it well.