Commiphora africana(A.Rich.) Engl.

WFO wfo-0001328094 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. a i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-06 / obs. 186540694
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. b i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540746
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. c i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540756
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. d i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540665
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. e i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540599
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. f i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540620
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. g i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540654
Commiphora africana, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. h i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186540676

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 34 botanical countries

Regions where Commiphora africana is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Cameroon, Caprivi Strip, Chad, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaCameroonCaprivi StripChadDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGambiaGhanaIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Commiphora africana, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Caprivi Strip CPV
Chad CHA
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 75 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.4 °C 11.3 °C 14.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 30.7 °C 37.1 °C
Annual rainfall 383 mm 649 mm 1,086 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 0 mm 21 mm 61 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 75 research-grade observations of Commiphora africana that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 26 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Balsamea africana Baill.
  • Balsamea kotschyi Engl.
  • Balsamea pilosa Engl.
  • Balsamodendrum africanum Arn.
  • Balsamodendrum kotschyi O.Berg
  • Bdellium africanum Baill. ex Laness.
  • Commiphora africana var. ramosissima Engl.
  • Commiphora africana var. rubriflora (Engl.) Wild
  • Commiphora africana var. togoensis Engl.
  • Commiphora africana var. tubuk (Sprague) J.B.Gillett
  • Commiphora benadirensis Mattei
  • Commiphora cakiicola Engl.
  • Commiphora calciicola Engl.
  • Commiphora loandensis Engl.
  • Commiphora nkolola Engl.
  • Commiphora palmatifoliolata Chiov.
  • Commiphora pilosa (Engl.) Engl.
  • Commiphora pilosa var. glaucidula Engl.
  • Commiphora pilosa var. meyeri-johannis Engl.
  • Commiphora pilosa var. oblongifoliolata Engl.
  • Commiphora pilosa var. venosa Mattick
  • Commiphora rubriflora Engl.
  • Commiphora rugosa Engl.
  • Commiphora sambesiaca Engl.

and 2 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.