Species
+

Commiphora socotrana (Balf.fil.) Engl.

Burseraceae

Climate known 8 photographs Cactus or succulent
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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 socotrana is a species of flowering plant in the incense tree family Burseraceae, native to Socotra. A shrub or small tree, it is dominant in the laakam myrrh tree shrubland and is found in many other woodland and shrubland biotopes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Commiphora socotrana”, 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
(Balf.fil.) Engl.
Native to
Socotra
Wild records
19 in range· 11 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
May, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
229mm/yr
4 wet months · peak Dec 70 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–46DLI
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 Commiphora, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). 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. Habitat rain 229 mm a year, wettest December at 70 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.5 °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 Balsamodendrum socotranum Balf.fil.; Commiphora socotrana Balf.f.

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 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 (182 mm of 229 mm) falls in May and October to December, whose mean temperature, 25.1 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 25.0 °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 229 mm a year, wettest December at 70 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

229 mm a year at the habitat, 182 mm of it May and October to December. Wettest month December at 70 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 186 mm to 268 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 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 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 30, 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 19.5 °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 19.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 16.9 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 31.5 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.5 °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: 59 to 63% 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 32 °C in May; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 229 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 7 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°31.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 31–46RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 7 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 / 23–2526 / 25–2729 / 28–2931 / 29–3232 / 30–3229 / 29–3028 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2928 / 27–2927 / 25–2726 / 24–26
Night °C20 / 17–2120 / 17–2121 / 19–2223 / 21–2525 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 23–2524 / 22–2423 / 22–2422 / 19–2321 / 18–2321 / 18–22
Rain mm11 / 8–135 / 4–65 / 4–69 / 9–1125 / 20–374 / 2–82 / 2–32 / 1–39 / 6–1639 / 32–4648 / 38–5270 / 50–78
DLI32 / 32–3438 / 38–4044 / 44–4546 / 46–4742 / 42–4337 / 37–3837 / 36–3736 / 36–3637 / 37–3838 / 38–3934 / 33–3531 / 30–32
RH %62 / 60–6561 / 59–6259 / 55–6159 / 55–6061 / 59–6460 / 58–6459 / 58–6360 / 59–6462 / 60–6762 / 60–6463 / 61–6462 / 60–66

Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 14 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 1547:4679 (12.625, 53.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °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 7 distinct grid cells holding the 14 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1547:4679 (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_53.750, lapse-corrected +196 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 330 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.
NativeSocotra
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker12.595, 54.003 · in the densest population, 19 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 19 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 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 19 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Commiphora socotranaCommiphora socotranaCommiphora socotranaCommiphora socotranaCommiphora socotranaCommiphora socotranaCommiphora socotrana

Photographs: (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist 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 Commiphora socotrana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Vegetation patterns and floristic composition of Yemen
Othman Saad Saeed Al‐Hawshabi, Salah El-Naggar (2015) · European Journal of Biological Research
7-O-Methylaloeresin A - A New Chromone Glycoside from Commiphora socotrana
Torsten Blitzke, Jürgen Schmidt, Mohamed Masaoud (2001) · Natural product letters
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Commiphora socotrana (Balf. fil.) Engl.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
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 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 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.