Zhu's Plant Journal 
Compiled reference
Background
This plant belongs to the genus Bursera in the family Burseraceae. Its scientific name is Bursera hindsiana. The iPlant database of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany calls it 牽斯裂欖, and the IUCN Red List gives its English name as Red Elephant Tree.
It is a tree native to western Mexico, reaching inland to Zacatecas, and grows primarily in the desert or dry shrubland biome. IUCN records it in Sonora, Baja California, Baja California Sur and Colima, from sea level to 800 m, in forest, shrubland, desert and coastal habitats.
The IUCN Red List assessed it as Least Concern in 2019, with a stable population trend.
It is not listed in the CITES Appendices.
Sources
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Plants of the World Online (POWO)： Bursera hindsiana (Benth.) Engl.
- 中國科學院植物研究所 — iPlant 植物智： 裂榄属 Bursera（下級列表）
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species： Bursera hindsiana (Red Elephant Tree)
- UNEP-WCMC／CITES 秘書處 — Species+： Bursera — 查詢
My own observations
Cultivation
It started with a cool name
Today I want to talk about a plant in the genus Bursera, Bursera hindsiana. The main reason I grow it is that I once saw it on a blog, and it has a rather over-the-top name, 役之行者, which sounds really cool. So about two years ago I bought seeds and sowed them, and got roughly three or four seedlings to enjoy myself.
Red-brown stems
What I like most about this plant is probably its stems. As they grow, the stems are red-brown, a colour I find quite distinctive. I've also noticed that some individuals have a clearly swollen stem base, which I think adds quite a bit to its ornamental value.
The stems also have prominent lenticels and lengthwise cracks, and each year, as autumn and winter approach, the stems start to swell more noticeably. The leaves are trifoliate.
How I grow it and what's next
I grow it in near full sun with good airflow, again in a coarse, gritty mix, and overall it doesn't feel particularly difficult to look after.
Once these seedlings get a bit bigger, I'll start cutting them back, hoping to control their shape to some degree in the future. I've also noticed that left to itself it branches naturally, so perhaps its apical dominance isn't very strong.
So in the future I may try to train it into a shape with bonsai potential, hoping to give it a different kind of character. I think that would make it more complete and more rewarding to look at, rather than simply having it in the collection.