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Bursera Microphylla. Photo by Ralph Cornell.
The branch tips are darker in color than
the limbs and trunk, showing a reddishbrown
hue. At the end of each branch are
sub-branches from which clusters of dark
green fern-like leaves are attached. The
twigs and oily textured leaves have an
aromatic fragrance much like that of
cedar. The tree usually flowers in summer
and small blue, pea-sized berries ripen in
fall.
Quite confusing is the fact that Bursera
microphylla is not the only plant referred
to as "elephant tree." Botanist Edmund C.
Jaeger expanded on the problem in a
past issue of Desert Magazine (November,
1956):
"On our Colorado Desert in California
and adjacent Arizona we call the small,
fine-leafed, pungent Bursera microphylla
an elephant tree. Farther south around
San Felipe along the Gulf of California,
the apple tree-like large-leafed copal
(Elaphrium macdougalii) is called an
elephant tree. Farther down the peninsula
the Pachycormus {discolor) is spoken of
as an elephant tree. This is most unfortunate
for each plant is so totally different
that even the novice in plant lore will at
once realize that the plants are probably
distantly related."
10
Dr. Jaeger concluded in his article that
the elephant trees of the Vizcaino Desert
of central Baja (Pachycormus discolor)
should be the only ones that deserve the
epithet of "elephant tree." Nevertheless,
Bursera microphylla still retains the descriptive
name.
The elephant tree reportedly has many
uses. The aromatic oil has been burned by
Mexicans and Indians as incense during
religious ceremonies and the red bark has
been used as a source of dye and tannins.
According to one source, the tree's sap
has been used to caulk boats, glue furniture,
mend broken dishes, and preserve
wood from attacks of worms. Indians in
Sonora reputedly used the branches in
basketry. The resin, known commercially
as copal, is employed as a base for varnish.
Healing properties have also been
ascribed to the elephant tree. It was once
a popular remedy for venereal disease,
dropsy, dysentery, and yellow fever. The
sap was applied to cure insect bites and
scorpion stings and the smoke from a
burning tree was inhaled as a remedy
for headache.
According to Lowell John Bean and
Katherine Siva Saubel, authors of Temalpakh:
Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and
Useage of Plants, the elephant tree or
kelawat enenka (bitter wood) was associated"
with great power among the Cahuilla
Indians of California. Consequently,
the healing red sap was administered
by shamans or medicine men and always
kept well hidden in households. Cahuillas
also used the red sap to obtain "power"
whenever they played the popular gambling
game of peon.
Most of California's elephant trees are
located within the protected half-millionacre
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in
San Diego County. Though now a park
attraction, it took many years to establish
the fact that these trees actually existed
outside of Mexico.
During the early 1900s, an old "desert
rat" told Edward H. Davis, of Mesa
Grande, that he had seen trees the size of
overgrown bushes looking like elephant
trunks that bled red. In the winter of
1911, Davis and his son found a group of
these perennials in the present Elephant
Tree area of the park, just north of Split
Mountain. Davis' discovery and subsequent
naming of these trees went unnoticed.
Again in the 1920s, "a grizzled old
man" told tales about seeing some' trees
that looked like "a herd of elephants."
In January, 1937, a Palm Springs naturalist,
Don Admiral, and a representative
of the United States Department of Agriculture,
E. M. Harvey, went exploring
for this bleeding tree. Their search ended
when they found one single specimen
(Desert, November, 1937). This find
excited botanical museums and universities
who had not known about the tree's
existence in the United States.
In November, 1937, the first organized
elephant tree hunt was scheduled with
the hope of finding more than the one
elusive tree. "Hunters" included: three
members of the San Diego Natural History
Museum, Clinton G. Abbott, Frank
F. Garder (with son David), and Allan
Stover; Guy Fleming, superintendent of
state parks in Southern California; and
Harold Sverdrup, director of Scripps Institute
of Oceanography. Their careful
search proved successful when 75 trees
were found on the rocky slopes of the
Vallecito Mountains.
Since that time desert travelers have
visited tree sites to ponder about this
strange tree. More often than not, visitors
would "prove" they had found an ele-
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