Cordia monoicaRoxb.

WFO wfo-0000620753 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Cordia monoica, photographed by Jens-Christian Svenning
fig. a Jens-Christian Svenning, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-01-21 / obs. 60141265
Cordia monoica, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. b Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74299440
Cordia monoica, photographed by Ryan van Huyssteen
fig. c Ryan van Huyssteen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 15237146
Cordia monoica, photographed by Wynand Uys
fig. d Wynand Uys, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 74299413
Cordia monoica, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. e rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 158797299
Cordia monoica, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. f rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 145873737
Cordia monoica, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. g rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 158797344
Cordia monoica, photographed by rosshawkins
fig. h rosshawkins, CC0 1.0 / obs. 145874329

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 27 botanical countries

Regions where Cordia monoica is native: Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Myanmar, Sri Lanka AngolaBotswanaBurundiDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMozambiqueNamibiaNorthern ProvincesSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZimbabweOmanSaudi ArabiaYemenIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MyanmarSri Lanka
Native distribution of Cordia monoica, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Botswana BOT
Burundi BUR
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Northern Provinces TVL
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Myanmar MYA
Sri Lanka SRL
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Saudi Arabia SAU
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 82 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.8 °C 12.0 °C 15.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 30.8 °C 37.2 °C
Annual rainfall 384 mm 636 mm 942 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 22 mm 53 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 82 research-grade observations of Cordia monoica that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 20 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Cordia bakeri Britten
  • Cordia dioica Bojer ex DC.
  • Cordia diversa Thwaites
  • Cordia kabarensis De Wild.
  • Cordia obovata Baker
  • Cordia ovalis R.Br. ex DC.
  • Cordia polygama Roxb.
  • Cordia quarensis Gürke
  • Cordia rubra Hochst. ex A.Rich.
  • Cordia subpubescens Decne.
  • Cordia timorensis Span.
  • Gerascanthus bakeri (Britten) Borhidi
  • Gerascanthus dioicus (Bojer ex DC.) Borhidi
  • Gerascanthus monoicus (Roxb.) Borhidi
  • Gerascanthus subpubescens (Decne.) Borhidi
  • Lithocardium leucocomum Kuntze
  • Lithocardium monoicum Kuntze
  • Lithocardium ovale (R.Br. ex A.DC.) Kuntze
  • Lithocardium subpubescens Kuntze
  • Lithocardium trichostemon (A.DC.) Kuntze

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.