Rare bursera microphylla elephant tree, flower caudex succulent bonsai plant
- Condition: New
Rare To Find Bursera Microphylla, Elephant Tree, flowering caudex succulent bonsai plant
Bursera microphylla
Bursera microphylla, also known as elephant tree in English or 'torote' in Spanish, is a tree that grows into a distinctive sculptural form, with a thickened, water-storing or caudiciform trunk and perhaps the most xeromorphic (desert-adapted) species within the genus. This tree is native to northwestern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Description
Bursera microphylla is generally a small tree with a thickened trunk and relatively small branching. Can grow up to 10 m (33 ft) in height and its bark is light gray to white, with younger branches having a reddish color. It flowers in rounded yellow buds which open into small, star-shaped, white or cream flowers.
The leaves are characterized as deciduous, but B. microphylla keeps its leaves year-round, except under conditions of drought and cold weather.
The exfoliating papery bark of many of the trivalvate species may serve to attract the attention of birds and other animals from a distance as it rustles in the breeze.
Bursera microphylla is an odd glabrous, pachycaul shrub or low branched tree 2-8m tall. It has several contorted trunks up to 30 cm in diameter and reddish branches which are swollen with water-storage tissue and covered with whitish sheets of thin, peeling bark. The stems and the finely divided, shiny green leaves are highly aromatic. It is very decorative in nature, but unluckily slow-growing in cultivation. It may leaf out in any month in response to rain, but stem growth is mainly in summer. The plants are dioecious or mostly so. The flowers, which open in summer, are tiny and inconspicuous. Bursera microphylla is one of our favorite species of this genus most famous for producing “copal” incense. The resin of this species is strongly aromatic and has a lemony pine, astringent fragrance. Native to the Sonoran desert and Baja California, a small relict population can be found in the Anza Borrego desert of San Diego county.
Water: Water more frequently in the spring/summer, during it's growing season.
Sun Exposure: Full sun.
Temperature: Keep above 25°F
Fertilize: During the spring/summer growing season with fertilizer.
This beautiful slow-growing caudex, which in its habitat is capable of reaching six meters in height, is characterized by its woody stem. It is from this stem, covered by a thin paper bark, that the branches develop, hosting short shoots decorated with dense leaves of a marvelous glossy and dark green during the vegetative season. The younger branches have a brownish color; and it is a very interesting feature of this plant to exude red sap when cutted. During the period of vegetative rest the leaves fall, thus allowing you to admire the marvelous twisted shapes of the stem and succulent branches, which have earned it the name of “Elephant tree”. In the summer, Bursera Microphylla gives life to tiny, but no less graceful, cream-colored flowers.
PLEASE NOTE that the listing is for the large plant in last five photos, with a caudex of diameter: 1.48"/3.75cm.
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