Myrrh

A thorny shrub of fragrant myrrh – the same myrrh that, according to the Gospel, the Magi offered to Jesus.

A thorny shrub or small tree of the torchwood family, growing to 4–5 m, with knotty branches and small, trifoliate leaves that appear only after rain. It grows in the dry scrub of the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Resin seeps from cuts in the bark and hardens into reddish-brown lumps of myrrh – bitter in taste and balsamic in scent. Since antiquity myrrh has been used as incense and as an ingredient of perfumes, balms and medicines.

Significance in the country

Somalia is one of the world’s main producers of myrrh; gathering and trading it is a traditional occupation of nomadic herders, and the resin is also used in home remedies and for perfuming houses with its smoke.

Where it grows

The dry acacia–Commiphora scrub of northern and central Somalia – from Bari and Nugal through Mudug and Galguduud to Hiran, Bakool and Gedo.

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