Photo Walk Around the World: North America Southwest - boojum

boojum tree, cirio

Foquieria columnaris

Related to both the ocotillo and 9 other species in the family, the boojum tree is an other-worldly looking flowering tree, known for its “upside-down carrot” appearance, and small Native region of Baja California and a small area of Sonora, Mexico. This plant was named after Dr. Pierre Fouquier, a physician to the courts of Charles the X and Louis-Phillipe of France. The common name, boojum, given to the plant in 1922, comes from Lewis Carrol’s nonsensical poem titled “The Hunting of the Snark,” in which he describes the “pitfalls that sometimes await searchers of happiness, scientific knowledge, etc.”

Similar to its cousin the ocotillo (F. splendens), it is drought-deciduous, meaning that it sheds its leaves during drier periods, and grows new leaves after precipitation occurs. The thick, green base of the tree also photosynthesizes, producing most of the plant’s food like the more common ocotillo, but it also provides a habitat for bees within the hollowed-out sections. As the plants are quite rare and somewhat slow-growing, they sell for up to $1000 a foot in nurseries.

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