Boswellia dioscoridis Thulin
Burseraceae
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 dioscoridis is a species of plant in the family Burseraceae. It is endemic to the island Socotra in Yemen. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and rocky areas.
Text from Wikipedia, “Boswellia dioscoridis”, 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.
At a glance
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 rainy season, May and October to December in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (187 mm of 253 mm) falls in May and October to December, whose mean temperature, 25.3 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 25.1 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to June and November.
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 253 mm a year, wettest December at 64 mm, driest July at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
253 mm a year at the habitat, 187 mm of it May and October to December. Wettest month December at 64 mm, driest July at 4 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 233 mm to 263 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: 34 to 47 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 34 to 47 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 33, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).
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 20.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.7 °C, the absolute minimum 19.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.1 °C in February (across the envelope cells 18.3 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 32.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.7 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 26 / 25–26 | 27 / 27–27 | 30 / 30–30 | 32 / 32–32 | 32 / 32–33 | 30 / 29–30 | 28 / 28–28 | 28 / 27–28 | 28 / 28–29 | 30 / 29–30 | 28 / 27–28 | 26 / 26–27 |
| Night °C | 19 / 18–20 | 19 / 18–20 | 20 / 20–21 | 23 / 22–23 | 25 / 24–26 | 25 / 24–25 | 24 / 23–24 | 23 / 23–23 | 23 / 22–23 | 22 / 21–23 | 21 / 20–22 | 20 / 19–21 |
| Rain mm | 11 / 9–13 | 6 / 5–6 | 6 / 5–6 | 10 / 9–11 | 35 / 32–40 | 9 / 7–10 | 4 / 3–4 | 4 / 3–4 | 16 / 13–20 | 42 / 38–46 | 46 / 41–48 | 64 / 56–70 |
| DLI | 36 / 35–36 | 41 / 40–41 | 46 / 45–46 | 47 / 46–47 | 41 / 41–42 | 36 / 36–37 | 36 / 36–36 | 36 / 36–36 | 37 / 37–38 | 40 / 39–40 | 37 / 36–37 | 34 / 33–34 |
| RH % | 61 / 59–63 | 61 / 59–63 | 61 / 60–61 | 61 / 60–61 | 64 / 63–65 | 65 / 64–67 | 64 / 63–66 | 65 / 64–67 | 68 / 67–70 | 64 / 64–65 | 63 / 61–64 | 62 / 60–64 |
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 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 1550:4683 (12.475, 54.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.7 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1550:4683 (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 12.50_54.375, lapse-corrected +237 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 297 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 dioscoridis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Boswellia popoviana Burseraceae
Commiphora planifrons Burseraceae
Boswellia socotrana Burseraceae
Commiphora socotrana Burseraceae
Boswellia elongata BurseraceaeOther Boswellia 21 in the reference
Boswellia ameero Burseraceae
Boswellia aspleniifolia Burseraceae
Boswellia bullata Burseraceae
Boswellia dalzielii Burseraceae
Boswellia elongata Burseraceae
Boswellia globosa Burseraceae
Boswellia nana Burseraceae
Boswellia neglecta Burseraceae
Boswellia occulta Burseraceae
Boswellia ogadensis Burseraceae
Boswellia ovalifoliolata Burseraceae all 22 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 not askedcarried 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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








