Commiphora confusa Vollesen

Spiny, or, rarely non-spiny shrub or tree up to 5(–7) m. tall, the spines not very distinct from non-spiny shoots; trunk cylindrical; bark yellowish or brown, peeling tardily in small irregular papery flakes, greenish beneath; slash pink to dark red; old twigs dark grey or almost black, glabrous, young twigs brown, pubescent; exudate sparse, colourless or milky, not scented.. Leaves all 3-foliolate, pale yellowish green, becoming yellow when old, hispidulous; petiole 2–20 mm. long; terminal leaflet often rather bullate, usually narrowly obovate, less often broadly elliptic or suborbicular, 5–45 mm. long, 3–25 mm. wide, crenate-serrate with ± 15 small teeth and ± 5 principal lateral veins on each side; lateral leaflets broadly elliptic or orbicular, crenate-serrate, with 2–3 teeth on each side, ± 1/6–1/3 as long as the terminal leaflet.. Flowers yellow, appearing with the leaves in dense clusters.. Male flowers up to 12 together in each cluster; peduncle 0.1 mm.; pedicels 1–3 mm.; calyx including the 0.5 mm. triangular lobes 2–3 mm. long, all puberulent; petals 4–5 mm. long, appressed pilose along the midrib outside; filaments ± 3.5 and 2.5, anthers ± 0.75 and 0.5 mm. long; disc pilose.. Female flowers solitary or 2–3(–6) together; pedicels 0.5–2 mm.; calyx ± 1.5 mm., both puberulous; petals ± 2 mm., reflexed; style and ovary ± 2 mm. long, the latter sparsely pilose.. Fruit subglobose or ellipsoid, 8–10 × 7–8 × (2 + 3.5) mm., glabrous, sparsely pilose or with scattered tufts of hair; pericarp 2-valved; pseudaril with 4 broad irregular lobes, the facial (sometimes with detached portions) ± half as long as the putamen, the sutural reaching its tip; stone corrugated, ellipsoid, obovoid or subglobose, 5–7 × 4–6 × (1.5 + 3) mm.; sterile locule ± flat or slightly ridged.. Fig. 13/14–22, p.72.

It is a tropical plant. It has been recorded at 1,250 m above sea level.

The gum is chewable. (Some of the gum is not chewed.)

It can be grown as a hedge.