The story goes that in 1922, Godfrey Sykes of Tucson's Desert Botanical Laboratory was standing on a hill in Sonora, Mexico, looking through a telescope at the distant hills. When he saw a hillside full of strange, erect, statuesque plants in the distance he was moved to exclaim, "Ho, ho, a boojum, definitely a boojum" - a reference to the elusive and malevolent force in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark, in whose presence "you will softly and suddenly vanish away, and never be met with again!" Frankly, it is hard to see the association, but the epithet stuck, and that is how we know Fouquieria columnaris to this day. But this wonderful and weird-looking plant has carried many other names before this one. It is reported that the Cochimi Indians, of the Baja region, a people and a language that now are nearly extinct, called it milapa, but I can find no record of what that meant to them. The Spanish sent their priest colonizers to the region beginning in 1534, and ultimately, it was recorded that they gave this odd plant the name of cirio, which means a candle or taper. The inverse proportions of a standing boojum make this name clear. In the late 19th century, botanists finally got 
around to giving it a scientific name when Arthur Remington Kellogg, one of the founders of the California Academy of Sciences, christened it first Idria columnaris and finally Fouquieria columnaris, which is how we know it today. The boojum tree is a member of a tiny family of plants of 11 or so species that range as far north as the Phoenix area, represented by the ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), to the southern end of the Baja peninsula and selected locations in Sonora. Some are succulent bulbous-looking plants, others, such as the palo adan (F. diguetii) and the tree ocotillo (F. macdougalii), are intricately branched trees or shrubs. Boojum trees are native to the deserts of central Baja California, as well as a few mainland locales in Sonora. Where it is native it is abundant, forests of these weird and amazing giants race up and down the sere hills. The areas have quite a bit of fog, which is a source of moisture for many species there, and in some areas, small bromeliads coat the boojum's trunks, soaking up that fog moisture. 
Boojum trees can grow 50 to 80 feet tall, but do so slowly and deliberately, making great strides during times of abundant winter rain and slowing to a barely discernible rate when rains are sparse. The succulent, whitish stem is delicate and corky and is easily damage or punctured, which makes moving a large boojum quite a challenge. I have known large trees to puncture themselves when placed on a flat surface as the weight of the tree pushed on the small stems. Although plants usually grow only one stem, it is not uncommon for them to branch high up on the plant. In years of severe drought, the delicate stem can lose rigidity and essentially wilt, then rise again as moisture returns. The twists and turns that result from this cycle of plenty and want make for some of the bizarre twists and unlikely shapes that are the delight of photographers everywhere. Like many Baja natives, the boojum tree is summer-dormant, losing all of its leaves around April as the weather warms up and the soil dries out. The long petiole of the leaf remains, and most of them stiffen into spines as the branch ages. Ironically, boojum trees bloom in the middle of the long summer with a spray of creamy flowers at the top of the plant. In times past, plants generally were brought to area gardens directly from collections in Mexico, but almost all boojum trees now sold are grown from seed. Seed germinates quickly when it is warm, and young plants grow steadily. But still you are looking at a generational commitment to get a really large specimen. Very small boojum trees enjoy being planted under the sheltering boughs of creosote, brittlebush or other sturdy desert plants, and will outlive and outgrow this helpful partner as the years go by. Provide a location with extremely good drainage; rocky or gravelly soil is best. Boojums will live for decades in pots. It just slows down their already 
deliberate growth, but again, sharp, fast drainage is a must.Although ample winter water is welcome, summer water is to be avoided. Because of our summer monsoons, be sure that the plant is not receiving extra water from the roof or a small wash nearby, or is anywhere that water collects. I once lost a boojum to a late-summer deluge that could not be drained away from the plant fast enough. The poet W.H. Auden wrote that Carroll's boojum perfectly embodied the end of it all, the essence of nothingness. That seems a dire association for such a fascinating plant. I wonder if the padres captured the spirit of the boojum tree best when they likened it to a slender piece of wax holding up a ray of light, for boojum trees are a perfect reminder of the force and tenacity of life even in one of the most daunting places on earth.
