Species
+

Commiphora gileadensis (L.) C.Chr.

Balsam of Mecca, Mecca myrrh, Mekkabalsam (DE), balm-of-Gilead

Climate known 24 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 gileadensis, the Arabian balsam tree, is a shrub species in the family Burseraceae growing in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, southern Oman, Sudan and in southeast Egypt where it may have been introduced. Other common names for the plant include balm of Gilead and Mecca myrrh, but this is due to historical confusion between several plants and the historically important expensive perfumes and drugs obtained from them.

Text from Wikipedia, “Commiphora gileadensis”, 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
(L.) C.Chr.
Native to
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia +6
Wild records
113 in range· 112 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Sep, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
247mm/yr
4 wet months · peak Apr 66 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–44DLI
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, April to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 247 mm a year, wettest April at 66 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.3 °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 gileadensis L.; Amyris opobalsamum L.; Balsamea gileadensis (L.) Oken; Balsamea meccanensis Gled.; Balsamea opobalsamum (L.) Baill. and 28 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, April to May and October to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.7 °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 (189 mm of 247 mm) falls in April to May and October to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.7 °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, northern 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 247 mm a year, wettest April at 66 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

247 mm a year at the habitat, 189 mm of it April to May and October to November. Wettest month April at 66 mm, driest January at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 113 mm to 471 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: 32 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 44 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 29, 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 16.3 °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 16.3 °C, the absolute minimum 14.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.4 °C to 22.0 °C), warmest day 32.5 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.3 °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 58% 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 33 °C in Sep; mean night from 19 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 247 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 106 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.1 °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°45°40.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 32–44RH 54–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 106 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 / 23–3431 / 24–3632 / 27–3732 / 28–3532 / 28–3432 / 28–3631 / 27–3632 / 27–3533 / 27–3531 / 27–3329 / 26–3229 / 24–33
Night °C19 / 13–2220 / 14–2222 / 16–2423 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 20–2622 / 19–2522 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 17–2421 / 15–2320 / 14–22
Rain mm3 / 1–103 / 1–1112 / 7–4466 / 12–11849 / 7–938 / 2–205 / 1–315 / 1–339 / 7–3249 / 7–8925 / 2–6413 / 3–28
DLI40 / 35–4244 / 38–4644 / 41–4641 / 37–4637 / 35–4532 / 30–3933 / 29–3736 / 33–3938 / 36–4037 / 34–4137 / 35–4037 / 34–39
RH %54 / 46–6154 / 45–6154 / 48–6157 / 53–6158 / 53–6254 / 47–6254 / 47–6454 / 48–6554 / 49–6457 / 53–6256 / 51–6255 / 48–61

Each figure is the median across the 106 grid cells holding the 112 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 1579:4554 (11.025, 47.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °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 106 distinct grid cells holding the 112 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1579:4554 (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 11.00_47.500, lapse-corrected -367 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 311 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.
NativeDjibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, 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 marker4.083, 45.917 · in the densest population, 81 records (72% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 113 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 112 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 113 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Commiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensisCommiphora gileadensis

Photographs: unknown, CC0, via GBIF (2); Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, CC0, via GBIF; Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via GBIF (2); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY, via GBIF (2); Meise Botanic Garden, CC BY, via GBIF.

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

β-Caryophyllene, a Compound Isolated from the Biblical Balm of Gilead (Commiphora gileadensis), Is a Selective Apoptosis Inducer for Tumor Cell Lines
Eitan Amiel, Rivka Ofir, Nativ Dudai, Elaine Soloway (2012) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Medicinal plants of the Bible—revisited
Amots Dafni, Barbara Böck (2019) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Ultrasonic-assisted extraction to enhance the recovery of bioactive phenolic compounds from Commiphora gileadensis leaves
Aiman A. Bin Mokaizh, Abdurahman Hamid Nour, Kaouther Kerboua (2024) · Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
Medicinal properties of Commiphora gileadensis.
David Iluz, Miri Hoffman, Nechama Gilboa‐Garber, Zohar Amar (2010)
Antibacterial Effects of Commiphora gileadensis Methanolic Extract on Wound Healing
Ayman Alhazmi, Abdullah F. Aldairi, Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, Anas M. Alomery (2022) · Molecules
Anticancer potential of biogenic silver nanoparticles using the stem extract of Commiphora gileadensis against human colon cancer cells
Sabah Ahmed Al-Zahrani, Ramesa Shafi Bhat, Mona Alonazi, Mona S. Alwhibi (2022) · Green Processing and Synthesis
The antibacterial activity of traditionally used Salvadora Persica L. (miswak) and Commiphora Gileadensis (palsam) in Saudi Arabia
AII Al-sieni (2013) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Virucidal Effect of Guggulsterone Isolated from Commiphora gileadensis
Lamjed Bouslama, Bochra Kouidhi, Yasir Mohammed A. Al Qurashi, Kamel Chaieb (2019) · Planta Medica

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 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)
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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.