There's sad news about one of the oldest members of the family at The University of Arizona in Tucson. The UA Campus Arboretum says that one of the tallest boojums in the state of Arizona is dying.

The historic boojum (Fouquieria columnaris) is in the Krutch Garden at the center of the UA Mall. It was planted sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s after a UA-sponsored collecting trip to Baja California. The striking plants are native to the Baja peninsula and Sonora. Normally they live several hundred years, but, like all plants, are subject to freezes, water stresses and disease.

Robert Perrill, a local grower and owner of Boojums Unlimited, spotted the diseased base of the boojum on March 3. Perrill pointed out that the softened bark and soft tissue damage around the entire base and central core of the plant will prevent it from taking water and nutrients. More important, however, is the degree of the damage, which encircles the stem and compromises the structural integrity of the 37-foot plant, making it a risk to people in the area and to other plants in the Krutch Garden.

Mary Olsen, a Cooperative Extension specialist in the Division of Plant Pathology/Microbiology in the UA plant sciences department, currently is analyzing samples of bark, wood and soft tissue. Olsen wants to establish exactly which organism might have caused the decay. Her findings will indicate how long the pathogen has been at work on the plant (estimates range from six months to six years or more), and whether the pathogen is likely to spread to the other two boojum trees in Krutch Garden.

One encouraging aspect of this unfortunate situation is that there is a chance the giant boojum can be cloned. A local nurseryman has agreed to take the four uppermost tips and, assuming they are disease-free, will try to propagate them. This effort, which will be rigorously documented, is a rare opportunity to evaluate the methods of regenerating boojums, to try saving the precise genotype of the century-old plant, and, if successful, to re-introduce those rooted cuttings into the Krutch Garden.

The Campus Arboretum will be documenting the entire process - from discovery of the disease to removal of the plant. Later on, photos and some explanation will be available on the Campus Arboretum web site http://arboretum.arizona.edu.

UA Grounds Services, under direction of Deryl Smith, will begin removing the boojum on Tuesday March 15, beginning about 7 a.m. (time depends on grounds crew schedule). Campus Arboretum Director Elizabeth Davison will answer questions from the press or from other campus units at that time. Anyone is welcome to observe the removal from afar. The fenced safety area will restrict visitors during the process.

Contact Elizabeth Davison at (520) 621-7074 or by e-mail at edavison@ag.arizona.edu.