Mexican Bottle Tree
Fouquieria purpusii
This is definitely one of the most striking of the species. Sometimes from the distance they almost look like a fir or pine tree. This beautiful succulent can grow to 12-23 feet tall and can have a 24 inch trunk at the base. Plants form one or more enlarged conical, central trunks containing large quantities of non-lignified (not woody) xylem parenchyma and meandering strands of tracheary tissue (tissue that transports water and nutrients). This tissue extends far up the central stems to produce a tapering growth form (this is one way it really differs from F. fasciculata. The leaves are light to bright green, thin, oblong, and they spiral up the branch. In spring it forms frilled out cone clusters of pale yellow to white flowers. The flowers have long anthers that protrude from the flower.
Plant in full to part sun. Plants are drought tolerant but plants in the ground benefit from watering 2-3 times a month in summer (in containers, 2-3 times a week). In winter, keep on the dry side, but if it doesn’t rain, water them about once a month. Container plants should be lightly watered about once a week in winter. Plants are reported to be hardy to about 25°F, but it is advisable to protect them from frost, especially younger plants.
The erect white flowers have a delicate sweet odor, are nectariferous and sufficiently short to allow exploitation of nectar and/or pollen by a number of insects.
Ethnobotanical uses are not well-documented but plants in this genus have been used as medicine almost wherever they occur. Flowers are edible.
The species, purpusii, is named after its discoverer, Joseph Anton Purpus (1860-1932), a German horticulturist and botanical collector who travelled widely in Southern Mexico.
Known only from a few localities in southern Puebla and northern Oaxaca where it exists in arid tropical scrub vegetation on exposed rocky limestone outcroppings and open basaltic slopes from 3200 up to 7500’ in elevation.
This species is endangered. Photo by Arturo Mora Santiago, iNaturalist
The base of Mexican bottle tree, photo by karel, iNaturalist
A plant in full bloom. Photo by Axuxco, iNaturalist
This species differs from F. fasciculata by having water storage tissue that tapers much higher into the tree--which makes some plants almost look like boojum trees. Photo by Jorge Ramos-Luna, iNaturalist
This plant has naturally become a bonsai, growing out of a rock. Photo by Arturo Mora Santiago, iNaturalist
These young plants look like so many fir trees. Photo by Ejido San Pedro Tetitlan, iNaturalist