My Hunt for the Wild Boojum...

Part One of a series of indeterminate length which examines my enduring dream to encounter the Wild Boojum. The purpose of this series is to examine how and why I have come to seek this elusive and fantastical plant.

Yes, for those of you who haven't already listened to me prattle on about this or who are not arid lands succulent afficionados, the Boojum is not some mythical creature out of a Lewis Carroll story (though it's the origin of the name) or a character in another absurd Saturday morning television show. It is a plant, or more specifically, a tree in the in the family Fouquieriaceae which includes the more ubiquitous (but no less facinatingly bizarre) ocotillo. It has a fat, fleshy, whiteish trunk with numerous black or brown spots which is adorned along its whole length with short stout and thorned branches with little tiny leaves on the end. The plant is wider at the bottom than the top, except when it blooms - when it's crowned by a crazy mass of flower-spikes that resemble a fuzzy orb. It's spiky, spiny and generally described as "angry", "upside-down" or "unfriendly" by outsiders.

How could I help but love it? It's like the plant kingdom version of me!

Me and a baby boojum (tamed garden specimens)

Now, like I said ealier, boojums are a tad elusive for a plant. However I do have an advantage. Unlike a reclusive species of lizard, or the infamous man-that-cooks-dances-and-fixes-your-car, I can both outrun and outsmart a boojum. As adaptive as they are, boojums haven't figured out how to run and hide under a rock or pretend they're gay to fend off unwanted marriages. Once I get close to one, it's pretty well caught - and only a moonless nightfall, a total solar eclipse or accidental blindness will prevent me from witnessing the wild boojum in all it's bizarre, pokey glory.

Ah, you say, so why this mysterious "hunt"? Just go find one already. Don't they have one at the UofA, or did they let those evil Californian landscape architects rip it out? Well - I am a big fan of the Krutch Garden Boojums - even signed the petition and showed up at the rally to save them (with a sign that read "Don't Hate Me Just Beacuse I'm Spikey"). I've seen Boojums in captivity in three states and Sonora, Mexico (kinda like another state only funner), I've seen little tiny boojums and the tallest and most imposing boojum in the United States (at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum near Florence -and yes, even a succulent can be imposing). I even have a boojum specimen growing in a clay pot in my back yard. It's a bit like watching the polar bears at the Tucson Zoo, though. Sure, they're really cool and unusual and they offer more entertainment than the lilies or the tree frogs - but it just isn't the same as the thrill of seeing a live, breathing polar bear surrounded by the ice and snow of its native habitat (not that I've seen a wild polar bear, but I can just close my eyes and imagine that it's cooler than seeing one in a tidy-bowl blue kiddy pool). So, I want to see groves of wild boojums, surrounded by the rocks, sticky shrubs and blistering sun rays of its natural environment. I want a 360degree boojum experience, and I don't want fences, rope barriers, two-year olds or interpretive signage to get in my way!

A capive boojum near Bahia Kino, Sonora. Pobrecito

Wild boojums occur only on in Baja Sur Mexico and one tiny costal point on the Sonora side of the Baja gulf. This is what makes them such a challenge to see - they only exist in a place that isn't super easy to travel to, and that I've yet to get! I've tried to reach the point in Sonora - but that's a story for another time (aye yae yae - travel in Me-heee-co!). Until then, the hunt for the Wild Boojum will not be deterred...


Watch for more boojum posts in the future including: Is it Thorny or Spiny? A Boojum by Any Other Name... and How to Raise a Boojum (or Don't Kill Me with Kindness)

Fellow boojum hunters