7038.000 Cordia L.

Description of the genus

Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely subopposite or opposite. Cymes arranged in lax or dense panicles, ebracteate, terminal or axillary. Flowers bisexual or unisexual, actinomorphic. Calyx tubular or ± campanulate, usually splitting irregularly, 3-5-toothed, usually accrescent and cup-shaped in fruit. Corolla 4-5(-7)-lobed, funnel-shaped to salver-shaped, white or yellowish. Ovary 4-locular (abortive in male flowers). Style terminal, twice 2-fid with 4 slender or clavate, stigmas. Fruit drupaceous, partially or wholly surrounded by the enlarged persistent calyx.

Derivation of name: after Valerius Cordus, 1515-1544, German physician and botanist.

Worldwide: c.320 species, tropical.

Zimbabwe: 5 cultivated taxa.

Insects associated with this genus:
Striphnopteryx edulis (Edible monkey) Food plant
Cordia africana

Links to cultivated taxa    View: living plant images - herbarium specimen images - all images for this genus

SpeciesContent
africana Lam.Description, Image
alliodora (Ruiz & Pav.) Oken
dichotoma G. Forst.Description, Image
monoica Roxb.Description, Image
myxa L.

Other sources of information about Cordia:

Our websites:

Flora of Botswana: Cordia
Flora of Caprivi: Cordia
Flora of Caprivi: cultivated Cordia
Flora of Malawi: Cordia
Flora of Mozambique: Cordia
Flora of Zambia: Cordia
Flora of Zambia: cultivated Cordia
Flora of Zimbabwe: Cordia

External websites:

African Plants: A Photo Guide (Senckenberg): Cordia
BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library): Cordia
EOL (Encyclopedia of Life): Cordia
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): Cordia
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
iNaturalist: Cordia
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Cordia
JSTOR Plant Science: Cordia
Mansfeld World Database of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops: Cordia
Plants of the World Online: Cordia
Tropicos: Cordia
Wikipedia: Cordia

Copyright: Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten, Petra Ballings and Meg Coates Palgrave, 2002-24

Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T., Ballings, P. & Coates Palgrave, M. (2024). Flora of Zimbabwe: Cultivated plants: genus page: Cordia.
https://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/cult/genus.php?genus_id=1192, retrieved 19 March 2024

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