Commiphora mollis (Oliv.) Engl.

mollis: soft

Small to medium-sized unarmed tree. Bark grey to brown, smooth or flaking in rather thick discs; watery to milky sap present; older trees often fluted. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate with 2-6 pairs leaflets and a terminal leaflet; leaflets elliptic, up to 6 × 3 cm, lower pairs often smaller, greyish-green, shortly hairy, paler and more densely hairy below; margin entire. Flowers in small axillary clusters, yellowish to pinkish, appearing before or with the new leaves. Fruit almost round, c. 1 cm in diameter, red when ripe, densely hairy, splitting to reveal a black seed with a 4-lobed bright red pseudo-aril.

Angola, Botswana, DRC, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and northern South Africa.