Commiphora_gileadensis
Commiphora gileadensis
Species of flowering plant
Commiphora gileadensis, the Arabian balsam tree, is a shrub species in the genus Commiphora growing in Saudi Arabia, Yemen, southern Oman, Sudan and in southeast Egypt where it may have been introduced.[2] Other common names for the plant include balm of Gilead and Mecca myrrh,[3] but this is due to historical confusion between several plants and the historically important expensive perfumes and drugs obtained from them.[4]
True balm of Gilead was very rare, and appears to have been produced from the unrelated tree Pistacia lentiscus.[4] The Commiphora gileadensis species also used to include Commiphora foliacea, however it was identified and described as a separate species[5]