7038.000 Cordia L.

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.