Commiphora tenuipetiolata Engl.

Dioecious tree with a single trunk 2-12 m tall, occasionally shrub-like tree with a short trunk; bark peeling in yellowish white papery pieces to expose a blue-green underlayer or peeling in thick brownish discs; young branchlets glabrous, sparsely pilose but rarely pubescent, not spine-tipped. Leaves trifoliolate (then mostly glabrous) or pinnate, 2-4-jugate (then usually sparsely pilose to pubescent, occasionally also with glandular hairs), glaucous, yellowish green or green; petiole 7-50 mm long, usually relatively thin and slender especially in trifoliolate leaves; upper three-quarters of leaflet margin crenate-serrate, lower quarter subentire or entire, occasionally exclusively entire, terminal leaflet elliptic, broadly elliptic or obovate, 12-65 x 7-30 mm; petiolule 1-4(-12) mm long; apex acute or obtuse, base cuneate rarely obtuse, lateral leaflets elliptic to broadly elliptic rarely suborbicular, 6-45 x 4-25 mm, subsessile or sessile, apex acute rarely obtuse, base cuneate or obtuse. Inflorescence: simple or compound dichasial cymes up to 55 mm long, glabrous, sparsely pilose or pubescent. Flowers unisexual, perigynous. Pedicel 4-10 mm long, pedicel, hypanthium and calyx usually glabrous, seldom pilose, occasionally also with glandular hairs. Disc reduced, without distinct lobes, adnate to hypanthium. Stamens 8. Fruit subglobose, ±15 x 13 x 10 mm, glabrous; pseudo-aril cupular with 2 facial lobes of variable length and form covering lower third to three-quarters of putamen; lobe on less convex face of putamen usually longer and larger than other lobe.

It is a subtropical plant. It grows in areas with a rainfall less than 600 mm per year and with a marked dry season. It is often on sandy or stony soil over limestone. It grows between 300-1,500 m above sea level. It can tolerate frost. It can grow in arid places.