Editing Boojum tree

{{Short description|Species of flowering plant}}
{{speciesbox
| name = Boojum tree
| image = Cirio columnaris, boojum tree.jpg
| image_caption = Boojum tree in [[Baja California (region)|Baja California]] desert, [[Cataviña]] region.
| genus = Fouquieria
| species = columnaris
| authority = ([[Albert Kellogg|Kellogg]]) [[Albert Kellogg|Kellogg]] ex [[Mary Katharine Curran|Curran]]
| range_map = A Fouquieria columnaris elterjedési térképe.png
| synonyms_ref = <ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/kew-2813818| title = The Plant List, ''Fouquieria columnaris'' (C.Kellogg) Kellogg ex Curran }}</ref>
| synonyms = *''Idria columnaris'' [[Albert Kellogg|Kellogg]]
*''Fouquieria gigantea'' <small>Orcutt</small>
}}

'''''Fouquieria columnaris''''', the '''Boojum tree''' or '''''cirio''''' ({{IPA|es-419|ˈsiɾjo|lang}}) is a [[tree]] in the [[Fouquieriaceae|ocotillo family]], whose other members include the [[ocotillo]]s. Some taxonomists place it in the separate genus ''Idria''. It is nearly [[endemic (ecology)|endemic]] to the [[Baja California Peninsula]] (both the northern and southern states), with only a small population in the [[Sierra Bacha]] of [[Sonora]], [[Mexico]]. The plant's English name, Boojum, was given by Godfrey Sykes of the [[Desert Laboratory]] in [[Tucson, Arizona]], and is taken from [[Lewis Carroll]]'s poem "[[The Hunting of the Snark]]".<ref>Robert R. Humphrey. The Boojum and its Home</ref><ref name="sallyhemming">{{cite book|last=Felger|first=Richard|url=https://archive.org/details/peopleofdesertse0000felg|title=People of the desert and sea: ethnobotany of the Seri Indians|author2=Mary B. Moser.|publisher=University of Arizona Press|year=1985|location=Tucson|isbn=9780816508181 |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>[[Wikisource:The Hunting of the Snark|Carroll, Lewis, 1876. The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony in Eight Fits]] complete text of poem</ref>

==Description==
This plant is a columniform, upwardly tapering tree. The central axis of the plant is homologous to the single stem of other species. It has a cortical water-storage network, a feature unique to the family.<ref name=":Henrickson" />

The ''Fouquieria columnaris'' trunk is up to 24 inches (61 centimeters) thick, off-white in color, with few or no major branches and with numerous thin, twiggy branches sticking out at right angles, all covered with small [[Leaf|leaves]] {{convert|1.5|–|4|cm|in|abbr=on}} long. They can grow to a height of 20 meters (almost 70 feet), but the tallest, in Montevideo Valley between Mission San Borja and Bahia de los Angeles is {{convert|86.5|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us}} in height,<ref>{{cite journal| last= Humphrey | first= Robert E. | date= September–October 1991 | title= Montevideo Valley and its Tallest Recorded Cirio | journal=Cactus and Succulent Journal | volume= 63 | issue= 5 | pages= 239–240}}</ref> the second tallest succulent after ''[[Euphorbia ampliphylla]]''.

The [[flower]]s bloom in August and September regardless of rainfall;<ref name=":Henrickson" /> they occur in short [[raceme]]s, and have a honey scent.<ref>Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert. 2 vols. Stanford University Press, Stanford</ref> The flowers have short, cream-yellow corollas, with the limb of the petals inflexing around the filaments of the [[stamen]]s. The anthers and stamens protrude out, while the [[Stigma (botany)|stigma]] is protected by the inflexed petal limbs. The flowers are visited by at least 15 species of [[bee]]s in 11 genera, who pry open the inflexed corolla limbs to obtain the sweetened [[nectar]] and contact the protected stigma.<ref name=":Henrickson" />
[[File:Fouquieria columnaris 0zz.jpg|left|thumb|Detail of the trunk]]
It is among the slowest growing trees. At fifty years of age, it may be only {{convert|5|ft|m|abbr=off|sp=us|spell=in}} tall, and thereafter averages twelve inches (thirty centimeters) every ten years.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.photoseek.com/MexicoBaja.html | title= Baja California, Mexico | last= anonymous | date= n.d. | access-date= September 4, 2007}}</ref>

== Taxonomy ==
This species is most similar to two ''[[Fouquieria]]'' native to south-central Mexico, ''[[Fouquieria fasciculata]]'' and ''[[Fouquieria purpusii]]'', as they share a succulent xylem, widely spaced decurrent leaf bases, and small decandrous (ten-stamen) flowers. In the two species, they are initially woody, and their succulent xylem develops only in the lower portion of their main stem. In contrast, the Boojum tree has a succulent xylem from its initiation, with the primary thickening occurring from the meristem. The [[Ploidy|chromosome number]] of this species is ''n''=36.<ref name=":Henrickson" />

=== Taxonomic history ===
This species was first described by [[Albert Kellogg]] based on specimens that were collected by a J. A. Veatch in Baja California. The type description was published twice and nearly identically, in the ''Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences'' and the [[San Francisco]] monthly periodical ''Hesperian'' in May 1860. Because the exact date of the publication in the ''Proceedings'' is unknown, but is likely to be after 1862, the type description in the ''Hesperian'' has the priority. The holotype specimen was destroyed in the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906]].<ref name=":Henrickson" />

This species was previously placed in the [[Monotypic taxon|monotypic]] [[genus]] '''''Idria'''''. However, this taxonomic classification was created before the vegetative and floral structures of ''F. fasciculata'' and ''F. purpursii'' were understood, as these two species share intermediate characteristics between the genera ''Idria'' and ''Fouquieria''. As many other genera (''[[Pachypodium]]'', ''[[Euphorbia]]'', ''[[Jatropha]]'' and ''[[Coreopsis]]'') contain both [[Woody plant|woody]] and [[Succulent plant|succulent]] species, and because there are few diagnostic characteristics to separate major groups within the family, the genus ''Idria'' has been merged into ''Fouquieria''.<ref name=":Henrickson" />

==Distribution and habitat==
This species occurs from sea level to up to 1450 meters in elevation on deep to shallow volcanic [[Loam|loams]] or clays to decomposed granite soils, on well-drained sites on hillsides, mesa, and alluvial plains.<ref name=":Henrickson" /> It is found from the vicinity of [[San Quintín, Baja California|San Quintín]] in [[Baja California]] south to the [[Tres Vírgenes]] complex of volcanoes in [[Baja California Sur]]; a notable concentration is the [[Boojum forest|Boojum Forest]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last1=Rebman|first1=J. P.|last2=Gibson|first2=J.|last3=Rich|first3=K.|date=2016|title=Annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Baja California, Mexico|url=http://sdplantatlas.org/pdffiles/BajaChecklist2016.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200215092557/http://sdplantatlas.org/pdffiles/BajaChecklist2016.pdf |archive-date=2020-02-15 |url-status=live|journal=San Diego Society of Natural History|volume=45|pages=174}}</ref> It is also found on [[Isla Ángel de la Guarda|Isla Angel de la Guarda]] in the Gulf of California. On mainland Mexico, it is also found in a small area south of [[Puerto Libertad, Sonora|Puerto Libertad]] in coastal [[Sonora]]. The annual rainfall within its region only averages about 73 to 140&nbsp;mm, mainly from January to April and in lesser amounts in August through September. Rainfall is unreliable and sometimes years may pass without heavy rainfall.<ref name=":Henrickson">{{Cite journal|last=Henrickson|first=James|date=1972|title=A Taxonomic Revision of the Fouquieriaceae|journal=Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany|volume=7|issue=4 |access-date=}}</ref>
[[File:Cirio trees in Baja.jpg|left|thumb|Numerous plants on the horizon]]
The peculiar distribution pattern of the mainland boojums{{clarify|date=December 2020}} has led Mexican botanists to conclude that they were probably transplanted to the mainland by the indigenous [[Seri people]], who lived in this area and still live on communal property south of this location{{where|date=December 2020}}. The [[Seri language|Seri]] name for this plant is ''cototaj''  {{IPA|sei|ˈkototax}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moser|first=Mary B.|url=http://lengamer.org/admin/language_folders/seri/user_uploaded_files/links/File/DiccionarioSeri2005.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070628052611/http://lengamer.org/admin/language_folders/seri/user_uploaded_files/links/File/DiccionarioSeri2005.pdf |archive-date=2007-06-28 |url-status=live|title=Comcáac quih yaza quih hant ihíip hac: Diccionario seri–español–inglés|author2=Stephen A. Marlett|publisher=Universidad de Sonora and Plaza y Valdés Editores|year=2005|location=Hermosillo, Sonora|language=Spanish, English}}</ref> In Seri belief, touching this plant will cause strong winds to blow (an undesirable state). Given this belief, the hypothesis that the Seri people transplanted it is doubtful.<ref name="sallyhemming" />
[[File:Dry land.jpg|thumb|Growing with ''[[Ferocactus pilosus]].'']]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{commons-inline}}
*[http://www.pbase.com/themarmot/image/81537635 Boojum ''(Fouquieria columnaris)'' at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden – Claremont, California]

{{Taxonbar|from=Q143016}}

[[Category:Fouquieria|columnaris]]
[[Category:Endemic flora of Mexico]]
[[Category:Flora of Baja California]]
[[Category:Flora of Baja California Sur]]
[[Category:Flora of Sonora]]
[[Category:Plants described in 1860]]