Cordia africana is an evergreen shrub or tree with a heavily branched, spreading, umbrella-shaped or rounded crown. It usually grows 4 - 15 metres tall, but some specimens can be up to 30 metres.
The bole can be 60cm in diameter, but is often short and of poor form, especially in drier areas.
A multipurpose tree, providing food, medicines and materials for the local population. Often gathered from the wild, it is also cultivated for the timber, its edible berries, as shade tree in coffee plantations, as a medicinal plant and also for ornament.
Cordia africana has a very wide distribution, large population, is not currently experiencing any major threats and no significant future threats have been identified. The plant is classified as 'Least Concern' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (2020).

Known Hazards

None known

Habitat

Savannah woodland
Often found in woodland and brush in warm moist areas, and along river banks, in Tanzania it is common in pastureland.
Found at low to medium elevations.

Cultivation Status

Cultivated, Ornamental, Wild

Cultivation Details

A plant of the drier to moist tropics, where it is found at elevations from 550 - 2,700 metres. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures are within the range 25 - 30°c, but can tolerate 5 - 34°c.
Mature plants can be killed by temperatures of -2°c or lower, but young growth can be severely damaged at -1°c.
It prefers a mean annual rainfall in the range 700 - 1,500mm, but tolerates 500 - 2,000mm.
Prefers a sunny position.
Prefers light, deep, and well-drained soils and moist conditions, though it can succeed in most soils.
Prefers a pH in the range 5 - 6, tolerating 4.5 – 7.
A slow to moderately fast-growing plant, it can reach a height of 7 - 8 metres after 7 years
Plants can start flowering when 3 - 5 years old.
Plants coppice and pollard well.

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw or cooked.
A popular fruit wherever it grows, it can be eaten raw or the pulp can be cooked with porridge to add a sweetness.
Usually combined with honey, the fruit is made into a sweetmeat called alewa (Arabic, halaua).
The yellow, ovoid fruit is up to 12mm long and 9mm wide.
A preparation called 'dari' is made during Ramadan from the fruits of this species, combined Balanites aegyptiaca, Ziziphus spina-christi, Tamarindus indicus and Grewia tenax. The concoction is made into a paste with flour for eating or into a refreshing drink with honey.
Seed.
The kernels resemble walnuts (Juglans spp.) in flavour.
The nuts are boiled and the liquor is bottled in gourds for two days to produce a drink called ambila.

Medicinal

The wood-ash, mixed with butter, is applied to certain skin-troubles.
Leaf decoctions are administered to treat headache, nose bleeding, dizziness and vomiting during pregnancy, and worms.
The leaves are dried and powdered to sprinkle over wounds.
A root-decoction is drunk as a treatment for jaundice and schistosomiasis
The fresh, juicy bark is used to tie a broken bone; this splint is changed occasionally with a fresh one until the bone is healed.
A stimulating tonic, used to treat fatigue and exhaustion while on a journey, is prepared from the bark and fruits along with the stems of Abelmoschus esculentus.
Fresh bark is applied to fractures and bark extracts and is also taken against fatigue.

Agroforestry Uses

The tree is an early colonizer in forest regrowth and has a wide range of uses.
Although quite slow growing, it has good potential for use as a pioneer species when re-establishing woodland.
It is often left when forests are cleared for cultivation, as the tree is an excellent shade tree for crops.
The tree is often found in cropland, where it is grown to provide shade.
In northern Tanzania it is favoured as a shade tree for coffee because of its short bole.
It provides very good mulch and can be used in other mixed cropping systems on cropland, pastureland, or rangeland to improve microclimatic conditions.
Leaf fall in the dry season is heavy, and the leaves make good mulch.
The sweetly scented flowers yield plenty of nectar and are very attractive to honey bees. They are known for their high-quality honey production.

Other Uses

The twigs are used as fire-sticks
The heartwood is pinkish brown to reddish brown; it is fairly distinctly demarcated from the 25 - 40mm wide band of greyish sapwood. The grain is usually interlocked; texture medium to coarse but even; the wood is lustrous.
It is moderately light in weight, hard according to some reports or moderately soft according to others, moderately durable, being moderately susceptible to termite and pinhole borer attacks. The wood works well with both machine and hand tools; it planes and moulds to a nice surface; polishes well when a filler is used; it holds nails and screws well and has good gluing properties; the peeling and slicing characteristics are satisfactory.
It is suitable for carpentry, cabinet making, light construction, ship building, vehicle bodies, toys, novelties, vats, draining boards, food containers, matches, veneer, plywood, hardboard, particle board and pulp for paper making.
Traditionally, it is used to make canoes, drums, bee-hives, grain mortars, water containers, utensils, tool handles etc.
The wood is valued as a fuel.

Propagation

Seed - can be stored for up to 12 months.
Sow the seed in a nursery seedbed in full sun or light shade. A germination rate of about 65% can be expected, with the seeds starting to sprout after about 2 weeks, and most of them sprouting after 3 weeks. The young plants can be transplanted to their permanent positions about 4 - 6 months later