Commiphora africana, commonly called African myrrh, is a small deciduous tree belonging to the Burseraceae, a family akin to the Anacardiaceae, occurring widely over sub-Saharan Africa in Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Chad, Eswatini, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Fruits are reddish, and about 6–8 mm across, splitting when ripe to reveal a hard, black seed held by a pseudo-aril or mericarp with four red fingers, resembling the clasps holding a jewel in a brooch or ring setting.

The tree's fruits are edible while the succulent, sweet roots are often chewed by humans, and the new leaves are sought after by camels and goats, particularly at the beginning of the dry season.

[3] The leaves, though, survive only as long as the moist air lasts, and dry out as soon as the rainy season is over, at which time the colour of the foliage changes to a remarkable, golden hue.

Herdsmen of the northern Sahel follow the rainfall patterns and the C. africana trees as they come into leaf, continually finding new areas for their animals to browse.