Compilation
Commiphora guidottii

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Name

Identification
Isotype of Commiphora sessiliflora Vollesen [family BURSERACEAE ] Verified by Not on sheet, Commiphora guidottii Chiov. [family BURSERACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Not on sheet,
Related name
  • Commiphora sulcata
  • Commiphora sessiliflora
  • Commiphora guidottii
  • Commiphora ornifolia

Flora

Entry for COMMIPHORA guidottii Chiov. [family BURSERACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Somalia
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Somalia, Vol 2, (1999) Author: by M. Thulin [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
COMMIPHORA guidottii Chiov. [family BURSERACEAE], (1932);. type: C2, between “Ted” and “El Gorum”, Guidotti 2 (MOD holo.). Fig. 124.
COMMIPHORA sessiliflora Vollesen [family BURSERACEAE], (1985);. type: C1, near “Galkayo”, Gillett, Hemming & Watson 21938 (K holo., BR, EA, FT, G, M, MO, PRE, SRGH, WAG iso.).
Information
Shrub or small tree, up to c. 5 m tall, unarmed; bark smooth, usually peeling off in yellowish or whitish papery flakes; branchlets thick, subterete or somewhat furrowed, tending to bend down, glabrous to puberulous. Leaves pinnately 1–5(–7)-foliolate, glabrous to pubescent; petiole 0.5–10 cm long; leaflets ovate to elliptic or suborbicular, 5–11(–15) x 3–8(–9) cm, acute to rounded and sometimes apiculate at the apex, with entire margins, the upper surface often with small blisters when mature. Flowers in puberulous to pubescent 1.5–16 cm long narrow panicles on pedicels up to 1(–1.5) mm long. Calyx 2–3 mm long, puberulous. Petals c. 3 mm long, cream or white, glabrous to sparsely puberulous. Stamens 8, c. 2 mm long. Fruits ellipsoid to subglobose, c. 11–13 x 11 mm, puberulous; pericarp 2-valved, very fleshy; pseudaril a short basal cup with ± shallowly lobed margin; stone c. 7–8 x 5 x 4.5 mm, with sterile cell about twice as thick as the fertile cell.
Range
N2, 3; C1, 2; S1
Altitude range
70–1300 m.
Distribution
SOMALIA Thulin & Bashir Mohamed 7005; Hemming 1693; Beckett 425.
Distribution (external)
SE Ethiopia
Notes
Hadi (Som., the tree), habak hadi (Som., the gum).Scented myrrh (bissabol or habak hadi), a major article for export from Somalia, is the gum-resin produced from C. guidottii (see Thulin & Claeson in Economic Botany 45: 487–494, 1991). In Somalia it is used against stomach complaints, in treating wounds, and as a cleansing agent and to facilitate expelling of the placenta after childbirth. Plants with 1-foliolate leaves are frequent in the “Las Anod” area in N2 and occasional findings of such plants have also been made in N3 and C1. However, in all other characters these plants fall within the variation of C. guidottii, and I prefer to include them in this species. Also, the Somali name is the same.

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