Species
+

Commiphora kua (R.Br. ex Royle) Vollesen

Abyssinian myrrh, Echte Myrrhe

Climate known 38 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

Commiphora kua, sometimes known as Abyssinian myrrh or the Yemen myrrh, is a plant native to northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, including Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Zambia, Malawi, Oman and Yemen. It was first described as Balsamodendrum kua in 1847, and has many botanical synonyms. It can be recognised by its simple, serrate leaves and by the pseudo aril, covering the seed, which has four almost linear arm-like lobes.

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

About the genus · Commiphora

Commiphora is the most species-rich genus of flowering plants in the frankincense and myrrh family, Burseraceae. The genus contains approximately 190 species of shrubs and trees, which are distributed throughout the (sub-) tropical regions of Africa, the western Indian Ocean islands, the Arabian Peninsula, India, and South America. The genus is drought-tolerant and common throughout the xerophytic scrub, seasonally dry tropical forests, and woodlands of these regions.

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

Family
Burseraceae
Described by
(R.Br. ex Royle) Vollesen
Native to
Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre +15
Wild records
365 in range· 350 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
334mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Apr 83 mm (CHELSA)
Light
33–43DLI
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 Commiphora, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, March to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 334 mm a year, wettest April at 83 mm, driest February at 7 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.7 °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 Amyris kafal Forssk.; Balsamea abyssinica (O.Berg) Engl.; Balsamea habessinica (O.Berg) Engl.; Balsamodendron abyssinicum Berg; Balsamodendron kua R.Br. and 32 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Commiphora, 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 sharp rainy season, March to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (260 mm of 334 mm) falls in March to May and October to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 334 mm a year, wettest April at 83 mm, driest February at 7 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

334 mm a year at the habitat, 260 mm of it March to May and October to November. Wettest month April at 83 mm, driest February at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 147 mm to 1057 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 33 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 43 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 16.7 °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 16.7 °C, the absolute minimum 13.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.2 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 31.3 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.7 °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.

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 29 °C in Dec to 31 °C in May; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 334 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 340 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°37.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 33–43RH 54–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 340 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 °C29 / 24–3430 / 25–3631 / 26–3630 / 26–3431 / 25–3431 / 25–3530 / 24–3430 / 25–3431 / 26–3530 / 26–3329 / 25–3229 / 24–33
Night °C20 / 14–2420 / 15–2422 / 16–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 15–2622 / 14–2522 / 15–2422 / 15–2422 / 16–2421 / 16–2420 / 15–24
Rain mm9 / 1–827 / 1–8131 / 8–12483 / 14–19250 / 10–1198 / 2–537 / 1–638 / 1–5312 / 3–3749 / 7–10047 / 4–13423 / 5–122
DLI40 / 34–4243 / 37–4642 / 39–4539 / 34–4636 / 31–4433 / 29–3933 / 28–3736 / 31–4039 / 35–4339 / 34–4237 / 33–4037 / 33–39
RH %55 / 47–6354 / 45–6355 / 48–6459 / 54–6558 / 53–6555 / 48–6354 / 48–6354 / 49–6454 / 49–6457 / 51–6259 / 52–6457 / 50–64

Each figure is the median across the 340 grid cells holding the 362 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 1458:4686 (17.075, 54.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 340 distinct grid cells holding the 362 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1458:4686 (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 17.00_54.375, lapse-corrected -250 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 87 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.
NativeBurundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.5, 39.7 · in the densest population, 178 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 365 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 350 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 388 km away. 3 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 365 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Commiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kuaCommiphora kua

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

Further Bisabolenes and Dammarane Triterpenes of Commiphora kua Resin
Lawrence Onyango Arot Manguro, Ivar Ugi, Peter Lemmen (2003) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Two octanordammarane triterpenes from Commiphora kua
Aman Dekebo, Ermias Dagne, Lars Kristian Hansen, Odd R. Gautun (2002) · Phytochemistry
Essential Oil Composition from Oleogum Resin of Soqotraen Commiphora kua
Nasser A. Awadh Ali, Martina Wurster, Norbert Arnold (2008)
Mansumbinane derivatives from stem bark of Commiphora kua
Gordon J. Provan, Alexander I. Gray, Peter G. Waterman (1992) · Phytochemistry
Lophenol and lathosterol from resin of Commiphora kua possess hepatoprotective effects in vivo
Hammad Ullah, Ajmal Khan, Najeeb Ur Rehman, Sobia Ahsan Halim (2020) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Bisabolenes and Furanosesquiterpenoids of KenyanCommiphora kuaResin
Lawrence Onyango Arot Manguro, Kavaka W. Mukonyi, Joseph Githiomi (1996) · Planta Medica
Antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of selected medicinal plants from Yemen
Mohamed Al-Fatimi, Martina Wurster, Guido Schröder, Ulrike Lindequist (2006) · Planta Medica
Further Bisabolenes and Dammarane Triterpenes of Commiphora kua Resin.
Lawrence Onyango Arot Manguro, Ivar Ugi, Peter Lemmen (2003) · ChemInform
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Commiphora 170 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 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.