Styrax offinalis is a shrub native to southern Europe and the Middle East. The same species is considered to occur native to California (a Mediterranean-American disjunct distribution

Disjunct distribution

In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but widely separated from each other geographically...

). The California varieties Styrax officinalis subsp. redidivus (Torrey) H. Howard and Styrax officinalis subsp. fulvescens (Styracaceae

Styracaceae

Styracaceae is a small family of flowering plants in the order Ericales, containing 11 genera and about 160 species of trees and shrubs. The family occurs in warm temperate and subtropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere....

) have generally been regarded as the same species, but recent molecular analysis has suggested that they may be diverged to the point of being separate species. It has a simple, relaxed form, with very thin elliptical leaves 5–10 cm long and 3.5-5.5 cm wide, alternate and widely spaced on thin, reddish stems, with a tight, dark bark on basal stems. A small very light green, stalked axillary bud is associated with each leaf. The inflorescence is short and few-flowered. It is the "official" source of styrax

Styrax

Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America...

, an herbal medicine known from ancient times. Some believe it to have been the stacte

Stacte

Stacte or nataph are names used for one component of the Solomon's Temple incense, the Ketoret, discussed in Exodus 30:34. Variously translated to the Greek term or to an unspecified "gum resin" or similar , it was to be mixed in equal parts with onycha , galbanum and mixed with pure...

 used together with frankincense

Frankincense

Frankincense, also called olibanum , is an aromatic resin obtained from trees of the genus Boswellia, particularly Boswellia sacra, B. carteri, B. thurifera, B. frereana, and B. bhaw-dajiana...

, galbanum

Galbanum

Galbanum is an aromatic gum resin, the product of certain umbelliferous Persian plant species, chiefly Ferula gummosa and Ferula rubricaulis. Galbanum-yielding plants grow plentifully on the slopes of the mountain ranges of northern Iran...

, and onycha

Onycha

Onycha , along with equal parts of stacte, galbanum, and frankincense, was one of the components of the consecrated Ketoret which appears in the Torah book of Exodus and was used in the Jerusalem's Solomon's Temple. This formula was to be incorporated as an incense, and was not to be duplicated...

 to make Ketoret

Ketoret

The use of incense in Judaism was related to perfumed offerings on the altar of incense in the time of the Tabernacle and the First and Second Temple period, and was an important component of priestly liturgy in the Temple in Jerusalem....

, the Tabernacle

Tabernacle

The Tabernacle , according to the Hebrew Torah/Old Testament, was the portable dwelling place for the divine presence from the time of the Exodus from Egypt through the conquering of the land of Canaan. Built to specifications revealed by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, it accompanied the Israelites...

incense of the Old Testament.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment: var. redivivus