Cordia trichotoma(Vell.) Steud.

WFO wfo-0000621058 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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 trichotoma, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. a B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-03-14 / obs. 64853727
Cordia trichotoma, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. b B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64853683
Cordia trichotoma, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. c B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 64854143
Cordia trichotoma, photographed by William G. Borges
fig. d William G. Borges, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115052988
Cordia trichotoma, photographed by Cecilia Fer Díaz
fig. e Cecilia Fer Díaz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193287299

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 9 botanical countries

Regions where Cordia trichotoma is native: Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Paraguay Argentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralParaguay
Native distribution of Cordia trichotoma, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Paraguay PAR

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 125 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.3 °C 13.0 °C 20.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.3 °C 29.4 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 886 mm 1,719 mm 2,031 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 22 mm 164 mm 426 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 125 research-grade observations of Cordia trichotoma 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 32 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 asterophora Fresen.
  • Cordia chamissoniana var. aemilii Chodat
  • Cordia chamissoniana var. blanchetii Chodat
  • Cordia chamissoniana var. gardneri Chodat
  • Cordia chamissoniana var. martii Chodat
  • Cordia chamissoniana var. nemorensis Chodat
  • Cordia excelsa A.DC.
  • Cordia formosa Chodat
  • Cordia frondosa Schott
  • Cordia geraschanthus Jacq.
  • Cordia hassleriana Chodat
  • Cordia hypoleuca A.DC.
  • Cordia hypoleuca f. minor Chodat
  • Cordia tomentosa Cham.
  • Cordia trichotoma f. blanchetii I.M.Johnst.
  • Cordia trichotoma f. puberula I.M.Johnst.
  • Cordia trichotoma f. tomentosa I.M.Johnst.
  • Cordiada trichotoma Vell.
  • Gerascanthus asterophorus (Mart. ex Fresen) Borhidi
  • Gerascanthus excelsa Mart.
  • Gerascanthus excelsus Mart.
  • Gerascanthus hypoleucus (A.DC.) Borhidi
  • Gerascanthus trichotoma (Vell.) Kuhlm. & Mattos
  • Gerascanthus trichotoma f. puberula (Kuntze) Kuhlm. & Mattos

and 8 more.

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.