Cordia caffra flowers and the beginnings of fruit

Cordia caffra, sometimes commonly called the septee saucer-berry is here still flowering while some green fruits have emerged or taken over the somewhat flat-topped, terminal flower clusters.

The drupes with pointed tips will be orange when ripe and eaten by birds, especially coucals; less energetically by people, due to the taste. Fruit diameter is about 15 mm.

The broad calyx attached to the back of the fruit may have brought saucer-berry into the common name, although some of the other members of the genus may have brought this on (Coates Palgrave, 2002; www.plantzafrica.com).