| Type | Indigenous |
|---|---|
| Family | Boraginaceae |
| Synonym | Cordia rothii Roem & Schult. |
| Local Name | Neeroli |
| Habit | Small sized tree |
| Botanical Features | Small trees, to 10 m high, bark grey or brownish-grey with deep longitudinal furrows, smooth, peeling of in thin linear strips; young branches brown tomentose. Leaves simple, subopposite or alternate, estipulate; petiole 7-20 mm, slender, tomentose; lamina 4-10 x 2.5-5 cm, oblanceolate, orbicular or ovate, base acute or obtuse, apex obtuse or rounded; margin entire, scabrous with white cystoliths above and tomentose beneath, chartaceous; nerves 3-5 from base, palmate, lateral nerves 3-4 pairs, pinnate, puberulent beneath, slender, prominent, intercostae scalariform, faint. Flowers polygamous, creamy white, in axillary or terminal cymes to 7 cm long; calyx tube 7 mm, tomentose, lobes 5; corolla 8 mm across, lobes 5, recurved; stamens 5; filaments 5 mm, hairy at the base, anthers 2 mm; ovary superior, 1.5 mm, ovoid, 4-celled, ovules one in each cell; style 6 mm. Fruit a drupe, 1-1.2 cm long, ovoid, acute; seed one. |