#fouquieriaceae

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Fouquieria splendens

With its bright scarlet tubular flowers, Fouquieria splendens is the best known plant in its genus (the sole genus in the family Fouquieriaceae). It occurs widely in the southwestern U.S. and in multiple states in the northern half of Mexico. Its common name is the ocotillo. Hummingbirds are frequent visitors to its nectar-holding flowers.

-Brian

[helluvatimes]

A Sunbird’s Delight

Flowers of an Adam’s Tree (Fouquieria diguetii) tantalizing potential pollinators in the upper loft of the Flower Dome. Photo credit: Jonathan Chua.

A somehow trapped Garden Sunbird (Cinnyris jugularis) had actually visited these flowers for a draught of its nectar before being spooked by our presence and flew off.

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Fouquieria columnaris

You might be forgiven if you think this plant looks like a bad-hair-day with insignificant flowers - but it is actually a young Boojum Tree (called a cirio in Spanish), an iconic plant of central Baja California. A mature plant can reach a height of 70 feet (20 m), with its fat base tapering to a whip-like tip. Its flowers may not be all that showy, but we are very excited that it produced them, since this is its first time doing so. It belongs to the same genus as the ocotillo.

-Brian

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Fouquieria fasciculata

Fouquieria is the genus of the ocotillo, and also the boojum tree of Baja California, but there are a number of less-often-cultivated species, including F. fasciculata. Like its relative Fouquieria purpusii, Fouquieria fasciculata has notably swollen bottle-like trunks and clusters of small white flowers. It comes from the area around Metztitlan in the state of Hidalgo, Mexico.

-Brian

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Fouquieria fasciculata

I admit that it is a little hard to tell what’s going on in the first photo above, since the plant is not isolated and has a tangle of Justicia behind it. But it serves to show what the entirety of the plant looks like, from the flowers at the upper right to the swollen trunks at the lower left, and I have included close-ups of each of these key features to show them off. Fouquieria is the genus to which to well-known ocotillo belongs (Fouquieria splendens),  but unlike that species with its showy bright red flowers, Fouquieria fasciculata has smaller pure-white flowers. What is truly remarkable about it is its enlarged base, like a cluster of green flasks, and it is often grown as a bonsai to show off this feature. It is native to the state of Hidalgo in Mexico.

-Brian

[ribzinc]

Fouquieria splendens (ocotillo) in bloom

[all-fake-everything-blog]