Unkind cuts for incense | Nature

Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Gold, frankincense and myrrh — the three royal gifts of the Christmas story — remain valuable commodities. But as Toon Rijkers _et al_.

report in the _Journal of Applied Ecology_ (43, 1188–1195; 2006), the latter-day story of frankincense is also a tale for our times. Rijkers _et al_. looked at frankincense production in

Eritrea, where it is used locally for cultural and medicinal purposes, and is also exported. Wild _Boswellia papyrifera_ trees are tapped by making incisions around the trunk of the tree,

starting in mid-September at the end of the summer monsoon. The resin is harvested every three weeks by reopening the incisions, and harvesting continues throughout the dry season.

_Boswellia_ trees also produce their flower buds at the end of the wet season, however. Could the constant harvest of resin, commencing at the time of floral induction, be a serious drain on

the trees' carbon resources? Not least because leaves are lost at the beginning of the dry season, so carbon for flowering and resin production must be obtained from storage products.

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FAQs * Contact customer support AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Biochemistry, King's College London, Franklin–Wilkins Building, London, SE1 9NH, UK Peter D.

Moore Authors * Peter D. Moore View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE

THIS ARTICLE Moore, P. Unkind cuts for incense. _Nature_ 444, 829 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/444829a Download citation * Published: 13 December 2006 * Issue Date: 14 December 2006 *

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