Species
+

Boswellia serrata Roxb. ex Colebr.

Indian Frankincense, Indian Olibanum, Indian olibanum-tree, Lobhan

Climate known 100 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 serrata is a plant that produces Indian frankincense. The plant is native to much of India and the Punjab region that extends into Pakistan.

Text from Wikipedia, “Boswellia serrata”, 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
Roxb. ex Colebr.
Native to
Assam, India, West Himalaya
Wild records
204 in range· 79 open

At a glance

Warmest month
38°C
May, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1010mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 295 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–46DLI
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: a summer growing season, July to September in the northern hemisphere (July to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1010 mm a year, wettest July at 295 mm, driest January at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.5 °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 Boswellia glabra Roxb.; Boswellia hirsuta Sm.; Boswellia serrata var. bivalvis Kuntze; Boswellia serrata var. glabra (Roxb.) A.W.Benn.; Boswellia thurifera Roxb. ex Fleming and 3 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: a summer growing season, July to September in the northern hemisphere (July to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (707 mm of 1010 mm) falls in July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.4 °C against a yearly mean of 25.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.

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 1010 mm a year, wettest July at 295 mm, driest January at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1010 mm a year at the habitat, 707 mm of it July to September. Wettest month July at 295 mm, driest January at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 703 mm to 2800 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: 26 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 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 22, 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 11.5 °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 11.5 °C, the absolute minimum 8.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.0 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 37.7 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.5 °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: 45 to 66% 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 27 °C in Dec to 38 °C in May; mean night from 14 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1010 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 130 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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°38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–46RH 45–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 130 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 °C27 / 22–3130 / 26–3333 / 30–3536 / 33–3838 / 31–4034 / 28–3830 / 26–3328 / 26–3130 / 28–3230 / 28–3328 / 27–3027 / 23–30
Night °C14 / 9–2116 / 11–2219 / 16–2423 / 20–2525 / 22–2825 / 22–2824 / 21–2623 / 21–2523 / 20–2420 / 19–2317 / 14–2215 / 10–21
Rain mm7 / 2–197 / 1–2610 / 3–309 / 2–9127 / 8–229139 / 59–571295 / 130–570247 / 125–433165 / 104–28276 / 17–29120 / 8–1768 / 3–41
DLI32 / 28–3738 / 34–4042 / 40–4446 / 38–4745 / 33–4735 / 26–4126 / 24–3126 / 22–3031 / 29–3433 / 29–3530 / 28–3230 / 27–33
RH %51 / 47–6047 / 44–5845 / 39–5945 / 36–6346 / 39–6557 / 48–7264 / 59–7266 / 62–7163 / 57–6956 / 46–6851 / 45–6550 / 47–62

Each figure is the median across the 130 grid cells holding the 195 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 1559:5142 (12.025, 77.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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 130 distinct grid cells holding the 195 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1559:5142 (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 12.00_76.875, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 866 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.
NativeAssam, India, West Himalaya
Extinct inSri Lanka· recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker27.032, 76.048 · in the densest population, 137 records (67% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 204 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 79 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1422 km away. 9 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 204 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Boswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrataBoswellia serrata

Photographs: (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6); (c) T R Shankar Raman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

The Complete German Commission E Monographs: Therapeutic Guide to Herbal Medicines
Michael Nathan, Robert Scholten (1999) · Annals of Internal Medicine
Assessment of Bioactivity of Indian Medicinal Plants Using Brine Shrimp (Artemia salina) Lethality Assay
Alluri V. Krishnaraju, Tayi V. N. Rao, D. Sundararaju, Vanisree Mulabagal (2005)
Boswellic Acids in Chronic Inflammatory Diseases
H. P. T. Ammon (2006) · Planta Medica
Boswellia serrata
Mona Abdel‐Tawab, Oliver Werz, Manfred Schubert‐Zsilavecz (2011) · Clinical Pharmacokinetics
Effects of Gum Resin of Boswellia serrata in Patients with Chronic Colitis
Inder Gupta, Ashok Parihar, Pawan Malhotra, Sanjay Gupta (2001) · Planta Medica
Adverse effects of herbal medicines: an overview of systematic reviews
Paul Posadzki, Leala K. Watson, Edzard Ernst (2013) · Clinical Medicine
Natural products and anti-inflammatory activity.
Gaofeng Yuan, Mark L. Wahlqvist, Guoqing He, Min Yang (2006) · PubMed
A double blind, randomized, placebo controlled study of the efficacy and safety of 5-Loxin®for treatment of osteoarthritis of the knee
K. Sengupta, Krishnaraju Venkata Alluri, A. Satish, Simanchala Mishra (2008) · Arthritis Research & Therapy
Effects of Boswellia serrata gum resin in patients with ulcerative colitis.
Inder Gupta, A Parihar, Pankaj Malhotra, Gurpreet Singh (1997) · PubMed

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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.