Cordia curassavica
Content
Description
Shrub, c. 1-4 m high.
Leaves: petiole 5-6 mm long, blade 3—10(—15) by 2-4(-5) cm, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, margin serrate, tapering and acute at both ends, glabrous to sparsely hispid and with tiny white tubercles on upper side, paler and soft pubescent beneath. Inflorescence unbranched, spike-like scorpioid, developing basipetally, terminal, 5-15(-25) cm long.
Fruit globose, 5 mm in diam., hidden in the calyx.
Distribution
Antilles present, Asia-Tropical: Borneo present; Malaya (Singapore present), Southern America, W Malaysia present
Central America, Antilles, northern South America. In Malesia introduced in W Malaysia, Singapore and Borneo at the end of last century.
Notes
All Malesian specimens examined clearly belong to C. curassavica. This species is distinct from C. cylindristachya, under which name it is found in the herbaria and cited in literature, by narrower leaves that are never velvety or tomentose but rough, exclusively terminal, often longer inflorescences and smaller calyces and corollas. The hairs on the calyx are much shorter than those in C. cylindristachya.