Burseraceae

Indian frankincense

Boswellia serrata Roxb.

Family: Burseraceae
Genus: Boswellia

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Indian frankincense (Boswellia serrata) — FlowerPhoto: Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist

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Common names

By language (13)

Arabic: لبان منشاري
arz: لبان منشارى
Chinese: 齒葉乳香樹, 乳香树, 印度乳香
Danish: Indisk røgelsestræ
English: Indian frankincense
Japanese: ボズウェリア・セッラータ, ボスウェリア・コナラ
Kannada: ಗುಗ್ಗುಳ ಧೂಪ
Malayalam: കുന്തിരിക്കം
Marathi: सालई
Norwegian Bokmål: Indisk salaitre
Persian: درخت کندر هندی
Russian: Босвеллия пильчатая
Tamil: பறங்கி சாம்ராணி, பாசுவெல்லியா செரேட்டா

Synonyms

Boswellia glabra Roxb.
Boswellia hirsuta Sm.
Boswellia serrata var. bivalvis Kuntze
Boswellia serrata var. glabra (Roxb.) A.W.Benn.
Boswellia thurifera Roxb.
Chloroxylon dupada Buch.-Ham.
Libanotus asiaticus Stackh.
Libanus thuriferus Colebr.

Flowers

In flower: January to March (from 15 flowering iNaturalist observations worldwide)

Photos

FlowerPhoto: Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist
FlowerPhoto: Aadi Kulkarni, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist
FlowerPhoto: Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist
FlowerPhoto: Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0, from iNaturalist
LeavesPhoto: T R Shankar Raman, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist
Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Vikas D Prasad, CC BY-SA 4.0, from iNaturalist
Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Swarochi Tathagath, CC BY 4.0, from iNaturalist
Photo: J.M.Garg, CC BY-SA 4.0, from Wikimedia Commons
Photo: Joshua Thomas (Joshua Thomas), CC0, from iNaturalist

More in Boswellia

Sources: classification, synonyms from World Flora Online Plant List (2026-06, CC0 1.0); common names, popularity from Wikidata (2026-10-26, CC0 1.0); common names, US characteristics from USDA PLANTS Database (2025-05-29, CC0 1.0). About our plant data.