BajaNomad - NOT BAJA? BUT WHERE ARE THESE BOOJUMS?

NOT BAJA? BUT WHERE ARE THESE BOOJUMS?

David K - 2-15-2010 at 05:54 PM

Okay, so as you know the Mision Santa Maria trip this weekend was postponed... So, how did I get my 'BAJA FIX'???

Well, Friday we went to Boojum country...

Even a sign!

Okay gang... do you know where we went yet?

There was even borregos there!

One saw us and came close...

Figured it out yet?

California Condors!

YUP, we went to Condor Ridge at the San Diego Wild Animal Park (in San Pasqual near Escondido).

It has the largest collection of growing boojum trees outside of Mexico... It was a good substitute for not being in the Cataviña desert... almost! :bounce:

BAJACAT - 2-15-2010 at 05:59 PM

lITTLE BIT OF bAJA iN sAN dIEGO COUNTY, tHAS gREAT dK tHANKS...

Phil C - 2-15-2010 at 07:29 PM

David, we love that walk too, it does give you a Baja "fix"

Ciriosly.....

jeans - 2-15-2010 at 11:45 PM

Boojums can also be found at the Living Desert in Palm Springs and I believe there is one in the Balboa Park cactus garden (across the street from the fountain)

AmoPescar - 2-16-2010 at 12:08 AM

JEANS...I THOUGHT THAT MAYBE IT WAS YOUR FRONT YARD!

Hope all is well with you and your cactus garden!

Miguelamo

Mexitron - 2-16-2010 at 07:41 AM

Yah, they have a nice garden there...although when I read the thread title I was guessing you might have gone to Puerto Libertad, Sonora....

I seem to recall that the Berkeley Botanic Garden has a couple of Boojums they manage to keep alive too...wouldn't think of them growing in a cooler climate like that but if you look carefully you can find boojums growing almost to the beaches in mid-peninsula where its quite cool too...

David K - 2-16-2010 at 09:02 AM

It gets WAY cold at night in Cataviña, too... HIGH DESERT, LOW DESERT... but only between 27º and 32º N latitude... naturally. Funny that they didn't go beyond?

Kudos!

Bajahowodd - 2-16-2010 at 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jeans
Boojums can also be found at the Living Desert in Palm Springs and I believe there is one in the Balboa Park cactus garden (across the street from the fountain)

Jeans- At least I ciriosly got it. :lol:

David K - 2-16-2010 at 06:01 PM

How about some photos of your Baja garden jeans?

ecomujeres - 2-16-2010 at 06:35 PM

Yep, UC Botanical garden in Berkeley does have a few Cirios. I often pass the one growing outside in the garden on my way to "work" as a volunteer there in the summer. It's a fairly small one, only about 6-7 ft tall. There are a couple of smaller specimens inside the "Arid House" in large pots, and almost any botanical garden with an arid house can grow them successfully.

I think that the outside specimen is growing so slowly because it doesn't have its optimal conditions: hot summer weather, moderate moisture in the winter (but not constant soggy conditions like we can have in the Bay Area) and lots of sunny days year round (on most summer days in the morning and sometimes until midday, the botanical garden is in the fog!).

David K - 2-16-2010 at 07:32 PM

Thanks for that note on Berkeley!

In 1984, I 'liberated' two boojum branches growing from a tree that had the upper half snap off... There were four new 'stems' growing up from the snap spot... they were about 12" long. I used a shovel to remove two of the four... and when I got home, put them in perlite after applying rooting hormone.

One took off... produced leaves every year, then dropped the leaves... eventually grew long twigs out with thorns and leaves on them... and grew up about 4 inches. I brought it to my first three Viva Baja parties for 'show and tell'. In 2003, termites or ? got into the pot and ate my baby! 19 years it lived with me!

I still visit the mother boojum or see it driving by, a few miles south of Santa Ynez. The 2 siblings are about 3 feet tall. What is that like an inch and a half a year? Boojums (cirios) are said to be some of the earth's oldest plants!

Skipjack Joe - 2-16-2010 at 07:36 PM

The Huntington Library in Pasadena has them. A great visit. The desert flora from Africa and Madagascar are particularly noteworthy IMO.

David K - 2-16-2010 at 07:39 PM

Cool!

Mexitron - 2-17-2010 at 11:51 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
It gets WAY cold at night in Cataviña, too... HIGH DESERT, LOW DESERT... but only between 27º and 32º N latitude... naturally. Funny that they didn't go beyond?

Often you can find ecological/physiological reasons why plants only grow in certain places but sometimes you can't----why are there many canyons between the Valle Chico area and the northern Sierra Juarez where no blue palms grow...why does Washingtonia robusta barely exist in the wilds but has become an "invasive" in California and Florida? Why don't the redwods grow farther north into Oregon?

One thing to keep in mind too is that plant populations are always in flux--they migrate and evolve all the time---just on a veeeerrrrryyy slow scale...so maybe the Boojum will be growing in Texas in a few thousand years! :lol:

David K - 2-17-2010 at 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
It gets WAY cold at night in Cataviña, too... HIGH DESERT, LOW DESERT... but only between 27º and 32º N latitude... naturally. Funny that they didn't go beyond?

Maybe that will happen... with a little help from you,. eh Steve?

You can buy boojum seeds online!

Skipjack Joe - 2-17-2010 at 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Mexitron

Often you can find ecological/physiological reasons why plants only grow in certain places

Also, natural geographical barriers.

ecomujeres - 2-17-2010 at 03:12 PM

David:

What a sad story about your baby cirio...

When I read your comment about the Cirios being really old, it reminded me of a paragraph I read in the Sonoran Desert book put out by Arizona Sonora Desert Museum about just that topic. I don´t have the book with me, but found the paragraph on-line:

"The boojum is essentially a succulent ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). It differs from that close relative in being a winter grower. Earlier work by Robert Humphrey of the University of Arizona suggested that boojums grow only a few inches a year and that the tallest ones were up to 700 years old. But a more recent study indicates that their life spans may typically be a century or so. Of the boojums identified in photos taken in Baja California in 1905, not one was still present when the sites were revisited in the 1990s. And of those in photos taken in the 1950s, very few were still present only 40 years later. Every few decades a given boojum population experiences a direct hit from a hurricane. Boojum, cardón, and senita are especially vulnerable to high winds and suffer significant losses of large individuals from these events. The tallest known boojum was discovered by Robert Humphrey in Montevideo Canyon near Bahia de Los Angeles in the 1970s; at the time it was 81 feet (24.6 m) tall. It grew several more feet during the next 20 years. In 1998 it and the 60 foot plus (more than 18 m) cardón next to it were gone."

Read more on the Cirio (Fouquieria columnaris) and Ocotillo at: http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_fouquieriaceae.php

I also wanted to comment on the photos of the "baja hillside" at the wild life park. Before I started to see the fencelines, I was very suspicious about it all--it had a manicured look or at least something just doesn't "feel" right and I still can't for the life of me say exactly why. It might be that the combination of plants isn't quite natural or the overall uniformity of the plants. No lo sé. Nonetheless, it does convey the essence of central Baja in a really good year. Thanks for sharing!

David K - 2-17-2010 at 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by ecomujeres
David:

What a sad story about your baby cirio...

When I read your comment about the Cirios being really old, it reminded me of a paragraph I read in the Sonoran Desert book put out by Arizona Sonora Desert Museum about just that topic. I don´t have the book with me, but found the paragraph on-line:

"The boojum is essentially a succulent ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens). It differs from that close relative in being a winter grower. Earlier work by Robert Humphrey of the University of Arizona suggested that boojums grow only a few inches a year and that the tallest ones were up to 700 years old. But a more recent study indicates that their life spans may typically be a century or so. Of the boojums identified in photos taken in Baja California in 1905, not one was still present when the sites were revisited in the 1990s. And of those in photos taken in the 1950s, very few were still present only 40 years later. Every few decades a given boojum population experiences a direct hit from a hurricane. Boojum, cardón, and senita are especially vulnerable to high winds and suffer significant losses of large individuals from these events. The tallest known boojum was discovered by Robert Humphrey in Montevideo Canyon near Bahia de Los Angeles in the 1970s; at the time it was 81 feet (24.6 m) tall. It grew several more feet during the next 20 years. In 1998 it and the 60 foot plus (more than 18 m) cardón next to it were gone."

Read more on the Cirio (Fouquieria columnaris) and Ocotillo at: http://www.desertmuseum.org/books/nhsd_fouquieriaceae.php

I also wanted to comment on the photos of the "baja hillside" at the wild life park. Before I started to see the fencelines, I was very suspicious about it all--it had a manicured look or at least something just doesn't "feel" right and I still can't for the life of me say exactly why. It might be that the combination of plants isn't quite natural or the overall uniformity of the plants. No lo sé. Nonetheless, it does convey the essence of central Baja in a really good year. Thanks for sharing!

Great stuff... many thanks! That giant boojum on the road to Montevideo was something! I have a photo of the base where it snapped... HUGE! The tree was at least 80 feet, as it layed on the ground going east from the trunk.

Jan 2, 2002:

Jan 1, 2004:

jeans - 2-17-2010 at 07:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by David K
How about some photos of your Baja garden jeans?

Nothing special, really. I couldn't keep the elephant tree alive (It was a different species than Baja's anyway) and the
most impressive bloomer is a peruvian cactus. Sorry no pics, but I don't have them hosted, and no the time to do it right now.