Commiphora myrrha
Illustration from Köhler's Medicinal Plants - Myrrh - Commiphora myrrha: A) part of a leafy branch in natural size; B) end of the branch with fruit, ditto; 1 sheet, enlarged; 2 male flower of Bals. Ehrenbergianum, according to Berg, ditto; 3 female flower of the same species, also to Berg, ditto; 4 and 5 fruit, nat. Size ..
Commiphora myrrha is a flowering plant in the family of the balsam tree family ( Burseraceae ). The original home is the north-eastern Kenya, eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and the Arabian Peninsula, Oman and Yemen. The myrrh is obtained from its resin.
- 5.1 Notes and references
Description
Commiphora myrrha is particularly concerning the leaves very variable.
Appearance, bark, resin and leaf
Commiphora myrrha grows as a deciduous, stemmed shrub or small tree, usually with only a short stem and reaches stature heights of up to 4 meters. The outer silvery, whitish or bluish- gray, smooth bark peels off in large pieces parchment-like and greener under smooth bark becomes visible. For the liquid, barely fragrant exudates produced a hard, translucent denes, yellowish gum resin. The gnarled branches have thorns.
The several on long and short shoots together standing leaves are divided into petiole and leaf blade. Petiole of 1 to 10 mm long. The leaf blade is imparipinnate, with only a pinnate leaf or two small to tiny lateral leaflets. The leathery pinnate leaves are grayish - green to blue - green and very variable in size and shape. The leaflets can be elliptic, spatulate or lanceolate with pointed, heart-shaped, rounded or truncated base and rounded or pointed top end at a length of 6 to 44 mm and a width of 3 to 20 mm. The leaf margins are smooth or have six teeth on each side. There are three to four only weakly visible veins present.
Inflorescence, flower, fruit and seeds
The flowering time is just before the rainy season. Commiphora myrrha is dioecious getrenntgeschlechtig ( dioecious ). The unisexual flowers are cruciform. Two to four male flowers are borne on each of a light brown cover sheet in a 3-4 mm long, dichasialen zymösen inflorescence. The inflorescence axis is often sparsely pilose glandular. The male flowers are 0.5 to 0.7 mm long and wide. Your flower base is cup-shaped. Its four petals are elongated with a length of about 4.5 mm and a width of about 1.5 mm, and at the upper end and bent back stachelspitzig.
One or two fruits are standing together on a stem. The egg-shaped and flattened at a length of 2 to 4 mm are beaked fruits. When the fruits are ripe, they fall into two parts and give a view of the single seed freely. The seeds have a bright colored, fleshy, smooth appendage, also called Pseudoarillus.
Occurrence
The natural range extends from north-eastern Kenya, eastern Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia to the Arabian Peninsula Oman and Yemen.
Commiphora myrrha is usually occurs in open Acacia, Commiphora bushland. It usually grows in shallow soils mainly on sandstone. Commiphora myrrha thrives at altitudes 250-1300 m in annual rainfall 230-300 mm.
Taxonomy
The first description was in 1828 under the name ( basionym ) Balsamodendrum myrrha by Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck in Plantae Medicinales or collection of officinal plants, 1, Panel 357 New combination Commiphora myrrha to 1883 and by Heinrich Gustav Adolf Engler in Alphonse de Candolle Pyrame Anne Casimir de Candolle Pyrame: Monographiae Phanerogamarum, Volume 4, published 10 p. Other synonyms for Commiphora myrrha ( Nees ) Engl are: Commiphora molmol (Engl. ) Engl, Commiphora myrrha Engl var molmol The genus name Commiphora is from the Greek words for kommis resin and phora derived for containing.
Use
See below myrrh.
Swell
- Sheet at AgroForestryTree Database. (Sections Description, usage and occurrence)