Different sorts of Frankincense
The frankincense tree is a scrubby, rather unsightly tree that grows in the wild. It grows to seven or eight meters and usually starts branching from its base. The Puntlands (carteri), produces small yellow/white flowers; the south african, B. papyrifera, produces small pale red flowers.
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Maidi, Luban Elemi, African Elemi, Elemi Frankincense, Gekar, Inaidi, Luban, Luban Matti, Luban Meiti, Lufod, Maidi, Meydi, Uban, Yagar, Yagcar, Yegaar, Yigaar, Yagcar, Yegaar
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The tree prefers arid, mountainous climates and only the moisture of morning dew. It's said the best quality resin comes from trees just out of reach of the monsoon rains, where rainfall is less than 10cm annually. The trees are usually found growing out of rocks and hillsides and dry river beds, wherever rich soil deposits of limestone are found.
Ducts inside the bark produce a milky white, sticky liquid that flows out when the tree is injured. The liquid solidifies into a resin when exposed to the sun, serving to heal the wound.
The resin is extracted today the same way it was 4,000 years ago. In the spring, tiny slits are made in the tree bark, and the resin that oozes out is collected in bowls.
To harvest the resin, a special tool called a "mengaff" is used. One end of the
mengaff has a sharp edge, which is used to wound the tree by making deep longitudinal incisions (4-8 cm). The opposite end of the mengaff is blunt and used to remove the resin from the tree after it has hardened. Another harvesting method used is to simply scrape away portions of the bark without making deep incisions and allowing the resin to flow from this wound.
A single tree may be tapped in one or more places according to its size. After a fortnight, the resin is collected only from the wound itself (leaving behind the inferior resin which has run down the tree to accumulate and be collected annually). The wound is then freshened and the process continues.
There is conflicting information on how often a tree is tapped, which seems to vary according to the revenue demands of the tree's owners and the geography, which dictates how exposed the trees are to rainfall (which spoils the resin).
Low prices are paid to sellers of the resin, which has led to overexploitation of easily accessible trees and under-exploitation of remote trees (which are more dangerous to harvest). Ideally trees are tapped twice a year, with each period lasting about 90 days. Intervals of 15 days between tappings means there are about six tappings per period (over which time the resin's quality gradually declines).
It is said that the large lumps of resin from the third collection and beyond, in the hottest part of the summer, are of the finest quality. Also, better resins come from the younger trees while mature trees tend to produce a more transparent resin, and still older ones produce an almost clear glutinous liquid of very poor quality. The first period of tapping occurs from January to March and the second from August to October. After tapping has continued for five/six years, the trees are rested.
Average annual yield of a tree is two/three kilograms. The gum is stored for about 12 weeks to harden to the required consistency.
