Commiphora schimperi Engl.

Almost glabrous shrub or small tree 2–6 m. tall; trunk cylindrical; outer bark peeling in dull yellow or grey flakes from the green under-bark; slash pale or reddish, smooth; exudate usually sparse, ± aromatic, producing a hard yellowish gum-resin; both long-and short-shoots usually spine-tipped, young twigs glabrous.. Leaves all 3-foliolate, often glabrous but sometimes with rather long flexuous golden hairs at the bases of the leaflets and the petiole which is usually about as long as the central leaflet but sometimes, especially on short-shoots, much longer and sometimes on long-shoots much shorter; terminal leaflet obovate or rhombic, rounded or pointed, cuneate-attenuate at the base, 7–35 mm. long, 8–22 mm. wide, with 3–6 deep crenations usually above the middle on each side; lateral leaflets usually similar in shape but 1/3–2/3 as long, sometimes almost orbicular with a wide basal angle and with teeth nearer the base.. Flowers greenish yellow, precocious, glabrous, the ♂ 20–40 together in dense clusters of very short cymes, the ♀ 2–6 together; pedicels ± 1 mm. long; receptacle cupular ± 1.2 mm. deep and 1.5 mm. wide.. Calyx ± 2.5 mm. long including triangular lobes ± 1 mm. long.. Petals linear, reflexed near the pointed tip, 4–5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide.. Filaments 5 and 3, anthers 1.1 and 0.7 mm. long.. Fruit-stalk 0.5–2 mm. long; drupe flattened ovoid or ellipsoid, usually distinctly beaked, sometimes merely acute, 10–13 mm. long (including a 0–3 mm. beak) × 7 × (3.5 + 4) mm.; pseudaril almost entirely surrounding and closely clinging to the rugose stone, sometimes shortly 4-lobed at the tip; stone ovoid, pointed ± 8 × 5 × (2.5 + 3) mm. with small but well-defined apical pits; sterile cell convex, thickest below the middle, resembling the fertile cell but rather smaller, the stone thus appears 4-gonous when viewed from above.. Fig. 7/6–8, p. 41.

It is a tropical plant. In Kenya it grows between 400-1,900 m altitude. It grows on well-drained dry soils that can be sandy or have clay. It can grow in arid places.

The roots are chewed for their sweet taste. The resin exuded by the bark is chewed. The inner red dark is used in tea.

Plants can be grown from stem cuttings. It is grown as a hedge plant.