Commiphora mollis(Oliv.) Engl.

WFO wfo-0000617363 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Commiphora mollis, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. a Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-03-15 / obs. 116051295
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. b Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60294934
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. c Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60199733
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. d Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60141396
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Alan Manson
fig. e Alan Manson, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 55540693
Commiphora mollis, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. f rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 178708411
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. g Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175399090
Commiphora mollis, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. h Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168124794

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 12 botanical countries

Regions where Commiphora mollis is native: Angola, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, DR Congo, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBotswanaCaprivi StripDR CongoKenyaMalawiMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesTanzaniaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Commiphora mollis, 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
Botswana BOT
Caprivi Strip CPV
DR Congo ZAI
Kenya KEN
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Tanzania TAN
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.

Also published as 12 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 mollis (Oliv.) Engl.
  • Balsamea welwitschii (Engl.) Hiern
  • Balsamodendrum molle Oliv.
  • Commiphora boehmii Engl.
  • Commiphora cinerea Engl.
  • Commiphora dekindtiana Engl.
  • Commiphora iringensis Engl.
  • Commiphora krausei Engl.
  • Commiphora montana Engl.
  • Commiphora ndemfi Engl.
  • Commiphora stuhlmannii Engl.
  • Commiphora welwitschii Engl.

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.