Cordia is agenus offlowering plants in theborage family,Boraginaceae. It contains 228 species of shrubs and trees, that are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide.[1] Many of the species are commonly calledmanjack, whilebocote may refer to severalCentral American species in Spanish.
The generic name honours German botanist and pharmacistValerius Cordus (1515–1544).[3] Like most other Boraginaceae, the majority havetrichomes (hairs) on the leaves.
The taxonomy ofCordia is complex and controversial. Gottschling et al. (2005) say this is partly due to "extraordinarily high intraspecific variability" in some groups of species, making identification difficult, and partly due to new taxa having been "airily described on the basis of poorly preserved herbarium specimens".[4]
A number of the tropical species have ediblefruits, known by a wide variety of names includingclammy cherries,glue berries,sebesten, orsnotty gobbles. InIndia, the fruits of local species are used as avegetable, raw, cooked, orpickled, and are known by many names, includinglasora inHindi. One such species is fragrant manjack (C. dichotoma), which is calledgunda ortenti dela in Hindi andlasura inNepali. The fruit of the fragrant manjack is calledphoà-pò·-chí (破布子), 樹子仔, or 樹子(Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chhiū-chí) inTaiwan where they are eatenpickled.
The wood of severalCordia species is commercially harvested. Ecuador laurel (C. alliodora),ziricote (C. dodecandra), Spanish elm (C. gerascanthus), andC. goeldiana are used to make furniture and doors in Central and South America.[13]
^Gottschling, Marc; Miller, James S.; Weigend, Maximilian & Hilger, Hartmut H. (2005-10-01). "Congruence of a Phylogeny of Cordiaceae (Boraginales) Inferred from ITS1 Sequence Data with Morphology, Ecology, and Biogeography".Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden.92 (3):425–437.JSTOR40035480.
^"Cordia dichotoma Forst. f."Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Plant Growth Facilities. University of Connecticut. 2009-10-06. Archived fromthe original on 2008-05-15. Retrieved2009-10-20.
