The family Burseraceae with 17 genera is widely distributed in tropical and subtropical countries. Boswellia has about 20 species in the dry regions of tropical Africa, Arabia and India. The resin obtained from Boswellia species is known in common parlance as frankincense or olibanum and is used as incense. The recent botanical report on the Burseraceae of Ethiopia has revealed the occurrence in Ethiopia of six Boswellia species namely Boswellia papyrifera, B. pirottae, B. rivae, B. ogadensis, B. neglecta and B. microphylla (Vollesen, 1989).

Boswellia neglecta is known to occur in the southern provinces of Bale, Gamo Gofa, Hararghe and Sidamo. It is also known to occur in Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. In Sidamo it is called ‘Dakara’. It produces a commercially important olibanum, which is coloured either black or white.