About Bursera glabrifolia (Kunth) Engl.
Bursera glabrifolia (Kunth) Engl. is a small tree species native to the tropical dry forests of central Mexico, where it occurs across the states of Guerrero, Morelos, Michoacán, México State, Puebla, and Oaxaca. It is one of two species commonly called copal. Copal wood is the type most frequently used by woodcarvers working in Oaxaca, Mexico. Oaxacan woodcarvers call Bursera glabrifolia "macho" or male copal, and they prefer the other copal species, Bursera bipinnata, which they refer to as "Hembra" or female copal, over Bursera glabrifolia. This species was first formally described by Carl Sigismund Kunth in 1824 under the name Elaphrium glabrifolium, before Adolf Engler transferred it to the genus Bursera in 1896.
