Family:  Myrrh (Burseraceae)

Hardy to Zones 9 to 12, otherwise grown as a potted tree and kept indoors for the winter

(Torote, Copal, Littleleaf Elephant Tree) Deciduous caudiciform shrub to small tree, flowering cream to a height of 13 feet.  Native to eastern San Diego County in California to Arizona, south to Baja and northern Mexico.  The trunk is swollen, yellowish, with a papery bark.  White, aromatic oleoresin (sap) exudes and dries at every injury.  The reddish branches contort, supporting upright compound leaves, pinnate, with tiny paired leaflets.  To attempt to take a picture of one of these and capture its essence is futile.  I took a picture of the drawing from “Growing Plant Medicine Vol 2” to give a feel for what the tree looks like in toto (or in torote, as it were).  Other photos of parts of the tree, its trunk and leaflets, the flowers and fruits, are in the gallery to help give a feel for the plant, and to augment the scanty photogenic information available on the web vis a vis this species.  Torote may thrive perennially in potted culture with appropriate protection.  They are generally trouble-free and can be employed as a source of burnable copal from a relatively early age.

Potted tree in a 6-inch pot, nice, certified organically grown