Species
+

Boswellia dalzielii Hutch.

Burseraceae

Climate known 24 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Boswellia dalzielii is a tree species in the family Burseraceae found in Africa. The bark of this plant is used in traditional medicines.

Text from Wikipedia, “Boswellia dalzielii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Boswellia

Boswellia is a genus of trees in the family Burseraceae, known for its fragrant resin. The biblical incense frankincense is an extract from the resin of the tree Boswellia sacra, and is now produced also from B. frereana. Boswellia species are moderate-sized flowering plants, including both trees and shrubs.

Text from Wikipedia, “Boswellia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Burseraceae
Described by
Hutch.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Ghana +9
Wild records
253 in range· 237 open

At a glance

Warmest month
39°C
Apr, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
925mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Aug 249 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Boswellia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 925 mm a year, wettest August at 249 mm, driest January at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Boswellia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (762 mm of 925 mm) falls in June to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 26.3 °C against a yearly mean of 27.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 925 mm a year, wettest August at 249 mm, driest January at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

925 mm a year at the habitat, 762 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 249 mm, driest January at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 716 mm to 1342 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 45 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 12.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.2 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 38.9 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 32 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 29 °C in Aug to 39 °C in Apr; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 925 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 207 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°42.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–45RH 32–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 207 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C33 / 30–3435 / 32–3638 / 36–3939 / 35–4036 / 32–3833 / 30–3530 / 28–3229 / 28–3030 / 28–3133 / 30–3434 / 32–3533 / 30–34
Night °C18 / 15–2020 / 17–2223 / 21–2426 / 24–2725 / 23–2624 / 22–2523 / 21–2422 / 21–2322 / 21–2322 / 21–2421 / 19–2219 / 16–20
Rain mm0 / 0–10 / 0–22 / 0–1828 / 12–8589 / 46–144140 / 96–218204 / 166–288249 / 199–318169 / 121–24343 / 27–1051 / 0–70 / 0–1
DLI40 / 38–4043 / 41–4445 / 42–4643 / 40–4540 / 37–4237 / 34–4033 / 30–3531 / 28–3435 / 32–3739 / 36–4040 / 38–4139 / 36–39
RH %35 / 33–3832 / 30–3733 / 30–4443 / 38–5253 / 48–5858 / 54–6363 / 60–6766 / 63–6865 / 61–6756 / 50–6140 / 37–4737 / 35–41

Each figure is the median across the 207 grid cells holding the 253 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1562:3525 (11.875, -3.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 207 distinct grid cells holding the 253 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1562:3525 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 12.00_-3.750, lapse-corrected +38 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 352 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker10.2, 14.25 · in the densest population, 140 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 253 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 237 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 253 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Boswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzieliiBoswellia dalzielii

Photographs: Meise Botanic Garden, CC BY, via GBIF (2); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY, via GBIF; unknown, CC BY, via GBIF; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via GBIF (4).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Boswellia dalzielii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

α-Pinene Induces Apoptotic Cell Death via Caspase Activation in Human Ovarian Cancer Cells
Jing Hou, Yi Zhang, Yanju Zhu, Bingfeng Zhou (2019) · Medical Science Monitor
Chemical composition and biological activities of extracts and essential oil of Boswellia dalzielii leaves
Midéko Justin Kohoude, Fernand Gbaguidi, Pierre Agbani, Marc-Abel Ayedoun (2016) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Diagnostic de l’état de dégradation des peuplements de quatre espèces ligneuses en zone soudanienne du Burkina Faso
Amadé Ouédraogo, Adjima Thiombiano, Karen Hahn‐Hadjali, Sita Guinko (2006) · Science et changements planétaires / Sécheresse
Evaluation of the aqueous extract of Boswellia dalzielii stem bark for antimicrobial activities and gastrointestinal effects
Nwinyi Florence C., L. Binda, Ajoku G.A., A. Salawu O. (2004) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Compositional analysis of the essential oil of Boswellia dalzielii frankincense from West Africa reveals two major chemotypes
Anjanette DeCarlo, Stephen Johnson, K. I. Okeke-Agulu, Noura S. Dosoky (2019) · Phytochemistry
Screening of some Nigerian plants for molluscicidal activity.
S.L. Kela, R.A. Ogunsusi, V.C. Ogbogu, N Nwude (1989) · PubMed
Boswellia dalzielii-Mediated Silver Nanoparticles Inhibited Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) Kasumi-1 Cells by Inducing Cell Cycle Arrest
Ismail Abiola Adebayo, Adamu Ibrahim Usman, Fatimah Bukola Shittu, Noor Zafirah Ismail (2020) · Bioinorganic Chemistry and Applications
Anti-inflammatory and anti-arthritic effects of methanol extract of the stem bark of Boswellia dalzielii Hutch (Burseraceae) in rats
Marius Mbiantcha, Almas Jabeen, Albert Donatien Atsamo, Gilbert Ateufack (2018) · Inflammopharmacology
Antinociceptive Activities of the Methanolic Extract of the Stem Bark ofBoswellia dalzieliiHutch. (Burseraceae) in Rats Are NO/cGMP/ATP‐Sensitive‐K+Channel Activation Dependent
Marius Mbiantcha, Alain Ngouonpe Wembe, Amadou Dawé, William Yousseu Nana (2017) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Plant diversity and carbon stock in sacred groves of semi-arid areas of Cameroon: case study of Mandara Mountains
VA Kemeuze, P. M. Mapongmetsem, DJ Sonwa, E Fongnzossie (2015) · International Journal of Environment
Toxicological studies and bioactivity-guided identification of antimicrobially active compounds from crude aqueous stem bark extract of Boswellia dalzielii
Bahauddeen Dandashire, Abdulkadir Muhammad Magashi, Bashi̇r Abdulkadi̇r, Muhammad Adamu Abbas (2019) · Journal of Advanced Veterinary and Animal Research
Antibacterial Activity and Phytochemical Study of Six Medicinal Plants used in Benin
Eugénie Anago, Latifou Lagnika, JD Gbenou, Frédéric Loko (2011) · Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Boswellia 21 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.