Bursera microphylla

 Bursera microphylla (elephant tree) (torote)

Burseraceae 

• The elephant tree is a squat, stem-succulent tree reaching up to 15 feet in height found in scattered wash habitats of Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The common name comes from the thick trunk and major branches which contain succulent tissues for the storage of water an resemble and elephant's trunk. Peeling back the exfoliating bark reveals a greenish main trunk. These stem tissues maintain low levels of photosynthesis during the dry portions of the year when the plants are leafless, but probably not enough to do more than partially balance the costs of respiration. The drought-deciduous leaves are clustered at the ends of short shoots and contain highly aromatic terpenoids. A puff of these compounds can be seen spraying into the air if one carefully pulls a single leaf from a branch of elephant tree and watches carefully. It has a CNPS Rare Plant Rank 2B: plants rare, threatened or endangered in California and elsewhere.
• If the bark of the short tapering trunk is damaged, it exudes blood-red sap from the inner layers.
• The common elephant tree was strongly involved in the vision quest and religious concepts and might be considered as the Seri "holy bush". “People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser”
• The common elephant tree was strongly involved in the vision quest and religious concepts and might be considered as the Seri "holy bush". Icoocmolca "what (blame) is put on (plural)"fetishes carved from the wood of the red elephant tree (Burserda hindsiana) served as messengers to the spiritual world. Also involved in the quest for spiritual power were desert lavender (Condea emoryi). The treatment of sickness often involved a shaman. However, the shaman's curing practices did not include the administering of medicines. He or she customarily held a handful of branches or a wand made from elephant tree or branches of desert lavender (Condea emoryi) or chewed the leaves while practicing curing powers. These plants, particularly the elephant tree, were used because of their powerful spirits. Face paint materials: For red color, the sap is used. Shampoo made from seeds of Simmondsia chinensis was highly esteemed and continued to be used in 1983. The aromatic twigs of Bursera microhpylla were often added to the jojoba shampoo It is one of the most common and conspicuous desert shrubs or small trees in the region. The limbs abd short trunk are fat and semi-succulent; the wood is pithy and very soft. The bark becomes papery in the late spring dry season. Foliage may appear at any time of the year following even meagre rainfall. The sap contains turpines, and the leaves, when crushed, are highly aromatic.  Flowering and fruiting likewise may occur at various times of the year, although flowering generally does not occur during the several colder months. The fruit is about 7 to 9 mm in diameter. While walking in the desert, the people occasionally chewed the hard fruit to quench thirst. It tastes like a bitter astringent and causes saliva to flow. Animal food: the seri said that old and thin male deer on Tiburon island eat the bark and that these deer lack strength and fat. They said that the females and fat males do not eat the bark. Elephant trees with scarred trunks and limbs are common on the island, especially near permanent water holes. Boats and caulking: the ribs and vertical stems at the bow and at the stern of the first plank boats were carved from this. Juan Mata, maker of the first wooden boat around 1900, used this wood because it was very soft, and his homemade nails would not penetrate hardwood, such as mesquite. Bursera microphylla was used rather than B. hindsiana because the trunk of the latter was crooked and not long enough. The caulking compound or pitch used on these early boats, was sometimes made from elephant tree gum mixed with animal fat. It was also used to repair cracks and fill small holes in pottery vessels. Facepaint: the blood-colored sap was squeezed from the inner "bark"or wood into  a large clamshell. A person's skin was said to become "white" with its continued use. Firemaking: a dry stick or branch attached to the living tree was one of the most readily available materials for making the firedrill. A crude but functional fireboard and drill tip could be carved from this wood in about five minutes with an ordinary knife. A firedrill of this material was usually made on the spur of the moment and was not one that a man kept in his quiver. Firewood: the dry wood was used as kindling. It is very soft and burns quickly. The wood was often part of the fuel for cooking teddybear cholla stems. Fishing: a belt made of the twigs was worn by a man spearing fish in waist-deep water to repel sharks. Food gathering: the dry wood was considered the best wood for smoking out bees. Hair car: the twigs were used with jojoba as a shampoo. Headpiece: the leafy twigs were sometimes woven into a headband or wreath. It was worn in summertime by men and women for shade ant to keep the hair in place. Hunting: temporary shelters or blinds for hunting mule deer were made from it because the highly aromatic foliage masked the odor of the hunter. These shelters were used in at least two hunting strategies. during summer, when deer came to eat organ pipe fruit, shelters were  built against these cacti. The other method, entailed hiding in blinds at a water hole on a moonlit night ad waiting for the deer to come to drink. The blinds were usually placed on the leeward side of the water hole. If there were a number of hunters, they might build several blinds in a line at right angles to the line of approach of the deer to avoid shooting each other. It was said that four or five deer might be killed in a night and would provide enough meat for everyone. Medicine: for a stingray wound the leaves were cooked in water with Atriplex barclayana and the resulting liquid was used to bathe the wound. To cure a headache, the head was washed with a decoction of leaves from this species and Stegnosperma. A mother sometimes put the leaves on the stump of her baby's ubilical cord as it was drying. To kill head lice, the crushed fruit was added to Lippia herbage which had been cooked in water, and the resulting mixture used as a shampoo. The inner "bark"' (reddish brown in color-probably the cortex) was mashed with water into a paste and applied to sores on a child's head. After the bark was mashed it often was squeezed into dark reddish brown balls which were stored for future medical use. The bark, boiled and taken as tea, was said to cure gonorrhea. The sap was painted on a scratch or cut on the face to prevent the scarred area from becoming darker than the surrounding skin. The sap was also applied to head infections. Painting: the red pulp beneath the bark was kneaded with a bit of warm water until the mixture became foamy. It was then put into a clean cloth, the liquid squeezed into a container, and the container set aside until the liquid thickened. It was used to decorate pottery; after firing, the painted area was a dark color. It was also used to paint or decorate various other objects, particularly wooden ones, such as fetishes and violins; it produced a dark reddish brown color. The supernatural: it was considered to have a powerful spirit, and it featured prominently in religious practices. A handful of branches or a wand made from two or more twigs braided together and tied with a cloth or yarn was used by a shaman in curing, and sometimes by those seeking power through visions. The bark was removed on the ones we have seen, and the twigs were dyed red or blue, or were left natural. In one version of the vision quest, after three or four days of fasting in a vision circle, the supplicant reached out of the circle with a wand from this tree. Power from Icor was picked up or transferred to the wand. By then touching the want to himself, the supplicant received power from Icor. By this means one could receive his vision or enlightenment. During the four-day leatherback fiesta branches were scattered over the giant turtles as offerings. One who dreamed a bad dream concerning another was supposed to reveal his dream to that person and then sweep the person with twigs to prevent the dream from becoming reality. Toys: the fruit was used for ammunition in a peashooter made of reedgrass. A knothole-like growth on the tree resembled a tiny boat and boys used them as toy boats. Weapons: metal for making harpoon points was said to soften more readily if heated in a fire of dry toroterathern than ironwood. “People of the Desert and Sea, Ethnobotany of the Seri Indians. Richard Stephen Felger and Mary Beck Moser”