Pittosporum viridiflorumSims

Cape cheesewood

WFO wfo-0000487907 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-20 / obs. 203904469
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Corne Brink
fig. b Corne Brink, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 193502938
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Justin Ponder
fig. c Justin Ponder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191542107
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Corne Brink
fig. d Corne Brink, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187340416
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Mahomed Desai
fig. e Mahomed Desai, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175918176
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Robert Taylor
fig. f Robert Taylor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165055981
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. g Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 164017123
Pittosporum viridiflorum, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. h Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150482892

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Pittosporum viridiflorum is native: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Central African Republic, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Saudi Arabia, Yemen AngolaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCentral African RepublicDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweSaudi ArabiaYemen
Native distribution of Pittosporum viridiflorum, 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
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Central African Republic CAF
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Guinea GUI
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Saudi Arabia SAU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 56 in flower of 274 examined

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Pittosporum viridiflorum observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 56 of 274 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 39 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.

  • Pittosporum abyssinicum var. angolense Oliv.
  • Pittosporum antunesii Engl.
  • Pittosporum arbutifolium DC.
  • Pittosporum capense DC.
  • Pittosporum commutatum Putt.
  • Pittosporum dalzielii Hutch.
  • Pittosporum feddeanum Pax
  • Pittosporum kapiriense Cufod.
  • Pittosporum kruegeri Engl.
  • Pittosporum lynesii Cufod.
  • Pittosporum malosanum Baker
  • Pittosporum mannii Hook.f.
  • Pittosporum mannii subsp. ripicola (J.Léonard) Cufod.
  • Pittosporum quartinianum Cufod.
  • Pittosporum rhodesicum Cufod.
  • Pittosporum ripicola J.Léonard
  • Pittosporum ripicola subsp. katangense Leonard
  • Pittosporum ripicolum subsp. katangense Leonard
  • Pittosporum sinense Desf.
  • Pittosporum spathicalyx De Wild.
  • Pittosporum ustulatum Cufod.
  • Pittosporum viridiflorum subsp. afrorientale Cufod.
  • Pittosporum viridiflorum subsp. arabicum Cufod.
  • Pittosporum viridiflorum subsp. dalzielii (Hutch.) Cufod.

and 15 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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. 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.