Species
+

Boswellia sacra Flück.

Frankincense tree, Olibanum, Weihrauch, frankincense

Climate known 75 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 sacra, also known as Boswellia carteri and others, and commonly called the frankincense tree or the olibanum tree, is a tree in the genus Boswellia, in the Burseraceae family, from which frankincense, a resinous dried sap, is harvested. The olibanum tree is a plant native to the countries of Oman and Yemen, in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, and to Somalia and Ethiopia, in the Horn of Africa. In 2012, it was replanted in Israel in the Middle East, 1,500 years after dying out there.

Text from Wikipedia, “Boswellia sacra”, 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
Flück.
Native to
Somalia, Oman, Yemen
Wild records
121 in range· 75 open

At a glance

Warmest month
34°C
Jun, mean day; nights 26 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
93mm/yr
no wet month · peak Mar 12 mm (CHELSA)
Light
34–46DLI
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: no rainy season to read (93 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are October to March in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 93 mm a year, wettest March at 12 mm, driest November at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 34 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.2 °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.

Also known as Boswellia bhaw-dajiana Birdw.; Boswellia bhaw-dajiana var. serrulata Engl.; Boswellia carterae Birdw.; Boswellia carterae var. subintegra Engl.; Boswellia carterae var. undulato-crenata Engl. and 4 more.

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: no rainy season to read (93 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are October to March in the northern hemisphere.

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

Rain at the habitat is 93 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as October to March. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 93 mm a year, wettest March at 12 mm, driest November at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

93 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month March at 12 mm, driest November at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 61 mm to 166 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 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 34 to 46 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 32, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

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 12.2 °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 12.2 °C, the absolute minimum 8.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 20.2 °C), warmest day 34.0 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.2 °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: 54 to 59% 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 25 °C in Jan to 34 °C in Jun; mean night from 17 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 93 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 52 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.3 °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)8.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030mm rainDLI 34–46RH 54–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 52 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 °C25 / 23–2626 / 24–2828 / 26–3131 / 29–3333 / 30–3634 / 30–3833 / 28–3832 / 27–3732 / 27–3530 / 28–3328 / 27–3026 / 24–27
Night °C17 / 11–2018 / 13–2120 / 16–2322 / 19–2525 / 20–2726 / 22–2926 / 22–2925 / 21–2824 / 20–2722 / 17–2520 / 15–2319 / 12–21
Rain mm5 / 1–128 / 4–1812 / 7–2211 / 7–188 / 2–208 / 2–147 / 2–2610 / 2–289 / 1–227 / 3–153 / 1–125 / 1–14
DLI35 / 33–3739 / 37–4143 / 41–4546 / 45–4845 / 41–4939 / 35–4538 / 35–4238 / 36–4137 / 37–4140 / 39–4237 / 35–3934 / 32–36
RH %56 / 49–5957 / 49–6057 / 47–6057 / 46–6157 / 44–6254 / 45–6556 / 47–6757 / 47–6859 / 47–6755 / 44–6155 / 46–5755 / 50–59

Each figure is the median across the 52 grid cells holding the 59 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 1482:4640 (15.875, 52.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.2 °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 52 distinct grid cells holding the 59 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1482:4640 (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 16.00_51.875, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 243 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.
NativeSomalia, Oman, Yemen· introduced: Gulf States
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker17.206, 54.049 · in the densest population, 76 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 121 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 75 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 58 km away. 8 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 62 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 121 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Boswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacraBoswellia sacra

Photographs: (c) Joey Bom, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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 sacra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Boswellia sacra essential oil induces tumor cell-specific apoptosis and suppresses tumor aggressiveness in cultured human breast cancer cells
Mahmoud M Suhail, Weijuan Wu, Amy Cao, Fadee Mondalek (2011) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Endophytic Fungi from Frankincense Tree Improves Host Growth and Produces Extracellular Enzymes and Indole Acetic Acid
Abdul Latif Khan, Ahmed Al‐Harrasi, Ahmed Al‐Rawahi, Zainab Al-Farsi (2016) · PLoS ONE
Aromatic and medicinal plants used in traditional medicine in the region of Tiaret, North West of Algeria
Asma Djahafi, Khaled Taïbi, Leila Aït Abderrahim (2021) · Mediterranean Botany
The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) (Sapindales: Simaroubaceae), an Important Pantropical Tree
Josphat K. Saina, Zhizhong Li, Andrew W. Gichira, Yiying Liao (2018) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Optimization for synthesis of silver nanoparticles through response surface methodology using leaf extract of Boswellia sacra and its application in antimicrobial activity
Syed Najmul Hejaz Azmi, Bushra Mohammed Hamed Al-Jassasi, Hiba Mohammed Saif Al-Sawafi, Sahar Harib Gharib Al-Shukaili (2021) · Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Chemical differentiation of Boswellia sacra and Boswellia carterii essential oils by gas chromatography and chiral gas chromatography–mass spectrometry
Cole L. Woolley, Mahmoud M Suhail, Brett L. Smith, Karen E. Boren (2012) · Journal of Chromatography A
Chemical Composition and in Vitro Cytotoxic Screening of Sixteen Commercial Essential Oils on Five Cancer Cell Lines
Basma Najar, Jorge Eduardo Shortrede, Luisa Pistelli, Joseph Buhagiar (2019) · Chemistry & Biodiversity
Climate change and the sustainable use of medicinal plants: a call for “new” research strategies
Olha Мykhailenko, Banaz Jalil, Lyndy J. McGaw, Javier Echeverría (2025) · Frontiers in Pharmacology

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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 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 answered
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 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.