Douglas C. Daly

MHG Meetings

Sponsored By: Metro Hort Group

Annual Meeting, Lecture and Holiday Pot Luck: Frankincense and Myrrh: A History Up in Smoke

Douglas Daly

Frankincense and Myrrh, two-thirds of the gifts of the Magi (with gold as an afterthought), are two of the most famous plants that almost nobody knows about. They also happen to be closely related. This talk will explore their historical importance, the special properties of plant gums and resins, the true (multiple!) identities of frankincense and myrrh, the remarkable plant family to which they belong, and the stunning convergences in the evolution of plants and of their uses across the continents.

Douglas Daly is B. A. Krukoff Curator of Amazonian Botany and Director of the Institute of Systematic Botany at The New York Botanical Garden. He has conducted some 80 botanical expeditions in 15 countries, specializing in the flora of the Amazon region and in the systematics and evolution of the Burseraceae—the frankincense and myrrh family.

Boswellia sacra, the Frankincense tree growing in Wadi Aful, Dhofar, Southern Oman:

Boswellia sacra, the Frankincense tree