Myrrh (Commiphora molmol and others).

Always look on the bright side of life I just watched "the Life of Brian" last night!! (seriously I was wondering what movie that song came from. Now I know )

 

You know, that's a strange looking plant. It almost appears to grow like one that is in my back yard. We thought it was a lilac at first, but it has thorns. Oh, and it grows bright pink flowers and appears to bloom "on old wood". (I don't think it's myrrh, it just grows similarly.)

 

I always wondered what myrrh was actually used for, other than incense. (or maybe that's Frankincense. Didn't some people use myrrh for incense as well?)

the habit of growth is not that unusual but the range of Commiphora is strictly within N E Africa and Arabia (C mukul is Indian)

Myrrh ,Benzoin and Frankincensce are "the usual suspects" for incensce.

You know in my Scripture Survey class(required religious class for school), my teacher told us that myrrh represented Jesus' humanity, for obvious reason why. Gold represented his King of the Jews specialness(you know what I mean) and incense represented divine aspect of his life.

Thanks for the picture, I never knew what the thing looked like.

You know in my Scripture Survey class(required religious class for school), my teacher told us that myrrh represented Jesus' humanity, for obvious reason why. Gold represented his King of the Jews specialness(you know what I mean) and incense represented divine aspect of his life.

Thanks for the picture, I never knew what the thing looked like.

Frankincense is a neglected medicine-burning the grains of gum gives off a deeply cleansing (but soporific) smoke-if you have a very bad head cold or respiratory infection it allows of a great freedom to breathe . Pliny cites it as an antidote to hemlock ( as a plant medicine).