Cordia caffra fruit and leaves

The fruit of Cordia caffra are about spherical, fleshy, yellow to orange in colour, growing pendulous on long stalks. Starting off green, fruits are still seen on the tree when old and black. The cup-shaped calyx persists at the back of the fruit, as does the sharp point at its tip, the remains of the flower style. Fruits are upon the tree during summer.

The leaves around the fruit in picture are simple, spirally arranged to sub-opposite on pale, slender petioles of up to 5 cm long, often drooping. Leaf shape is ovate with a tapering tip, narrowly pointed and a rounded to square base.

Leaves are thin, hairy only when young, then shiny green above and paler below. The leaf margins are irregularly toothed, usually only slightly. There are four to six pairs of, or not quite paired, lateral veins ascending from the midrib to the margin.

The tree produces branched clusters of small, sweetly scented flowers, creamy white and bell-shaped, growing at its stem tips in spring (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; www.plantzafrica.com).