Cordia subcordata (Boraginaceae)

Cordia subcordata
(Boraginaceae)

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Species description or overview	Taxonomy & nomenclature	Risk assessments	Cultivation & propagation
Images	Distribution	Full-text articles

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"Apparently originally native to Malesia, spread throughout the Pacific by the early migrations of Austronesian people...." (Wagner et al. 1990.), and (as in the 1999 revision to the 1990 text of the same name): "distribution status change to indigenous" "based on subfossil seeds" (Wagner et al. 1999). Manual of flowering plants of Hawaii [rev. ed.]. p. 1865). "...in 1997 scientists excavating a sinkhole on Kauai found abundant fossilized kou seed in sediment layers dating 5000 years before present, millennia before the first people arrived in Kauai. Kou is clearly a native plant to Hawaii (Burney et al. 2001 per http://agroforestry.net/tti/Cordia-kou.pdf, accessed 15JUN2011). Cordia subcordata is native to Malesia and Hawaii.

Species description or overview

Cordia subcordata species profile for Pacific Island Agroforestry

An extensive review of kou (Cordia subcordata), including images, culture, diseases, pests, and legends, is provided by www.traditionaltree.org.

Traditional tree Cordia subcordata
A kou overview is provided by the Traditional Tree Initiative's species profiles for Pacific Island Agroforestry (www.traditionaltree.org).

Cordia subcordata information from "Common forest trees of Hawaii"
Information about Cordia subcordata is presented with respect to this species being a forest tree in Hawaii. The information on this site is from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) 1989 publication by Little and Skolmen entitled "Common forest trees of Hawaii (native and introduced)."

Cordia subcordata information from NTBG
Information about Cordia subcordata is available from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG).

Taxonomy & nomenclature

GRIN nomenclature info for Cordia subcordata
Nomenclatural information about Cordia subcordata is provided by USDA/ARS/NGRP/GRIN.

Cordia subcordata information from the Smithsonian's Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Information about Cordia subcordata--including nomenclature and synonymy, and status and distribution in Hawaii--is provided by the "Flora of the Hawaiian Islands" website of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Links from this page include descriptive information about the species, as well as worldwide distributional information and general information about the genus.

Cordia subcordata information from ITIS
The Integrated Taxonomic Information System ITIS provides authoritative taxonomic information on Cordia subcordata, as well as other plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world.

IPNI nomenclature info for Cordia subcordata
Nomenclatural information about Cordia subcordata is provided by The International Plant Names Index (IPNI).

Risk assessments

Cordia subcordata weed risk assessment for Hawaii-Pacific
Results of a weed risk assessment for Cordia subcordata for the Hawaii-Pacific region are presented by the Hawaii-Pacific Weed Risk Assessment team.

Cultivation & propagation

Best native plants for landscapes

Endemic and indigenous Hawaiian plants used in landscapes are pictured in this publication from the University of Hawaii.

Images

Images of Cordia subcordata (Boraginaceae) (kou)
Links to high-resolution free images of Cordia subcordata (Boraginaceae) (kou) by Forest & Kim Starr (USGS) are available here.

Cordia subcordata information from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Information about Cordia subcordata in Hawaii is available from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands.

Bischofia to Cryptomeria images and weed risk assessment scores
Images of trees Bischofia to Cryptomeria, and their weed risk assessment scores, listed alphabetically, are from the University of Hawaii Forestry Extension.

Distribution

Cordia subcordata information from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Information about Cordia subcordata in Hawaii is available from the Smithsonian Flora of the Hawaiian Islands.

Full-text articles

Fossil evidence for a diverse biota from Kauai and its transformation since human arrival
This article in Ecological Monographs (Burney et al. 2001) is described by its authors as follows: Coring and excavations in a large sinkhole and cave system formed in an eolianite deposit on the south coast of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands reveal a fossil site with remarkable preservation and diversity of plant and animal remains. Radiocarbon dating and investigations of the sediments and their fossil contents, including diatoms, invertebrate shells, vertebrate bones, pollen, and plant macrofossils, provide a more complete picture of prehuman ecological conditions in the Hawaiian lowlands than has been previously available. The evidence confirms that a highly diverse prehuman landscape has been completely transformed, with the decline or extirpation of most native species and their replacement with introduced species. The stratigraphy documents many late Holocene extinctions, including previously undescribed species, and suggests that the pattern of extirpation for snails occurred in three temporal stages, corresponding to initial settlement, late prehistoric, and historic impacts. The site also records land-use changes of recent centuries, including evidence for deforestation, overgrazing, and soil erosion during the historic period, and biological invasion during both the Polynesian and historic periods. Human artifacts and midden materials demonstrate a high-density human presence near the site for the last four centuries. Earlier evidence for humans includes a bone of the prehistorically introduced Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) dating to 822 yr BP (calendar year [cal yr] AD 1039-1241). Vegetation at the site before human arrival consisted of a herbaceous component with strand plants and graminoids, and a woody component that included trees and shrubs now mostly restricted to a few higher, wetter, and less disturbed parts of the island. Efforts to restore lowland areas in the Hawaiian Islands must take into account the evidence from this study that the prehuman lowlands of dry leeward Kauai included plants and animals previously known only in wetter and cooler habitats. Many species may be restricted to high elevations today primarily because these remote locations have, by virtue of their difficult topography and climate, resisted most human-induced changes more effectively than the coastal lowlands.

Alien plant invasions in native ecosystems of Hawaii: Management and research
Stone, Charles P., Clifford W. Smith, and J. Timothy Tunison (eds.) . 1992. Alien plant invasions in native ecosystems of Hawaii: Management and research. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Cooperative National Park Resources Studies Unit. ISBN: 0-8248-1474-6.

Oahu Offshore Islets Botanical Survey
Starr, F. and K. Starr. 2006. Oahu Offshore Islets Botanical Survey. Report prepared for State Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Offshore Islet Restoration Committee, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Revised List of Hawaiian Names of Plants Native and Introduced with Brief Descriptions and Notes as to Occurrence and Medicinal or Other Values
Gon III, Samuel M. Ohukaniohia. 2008. Revised List of Hawaiian Names of Plants Native and Introduced with Brief Descriptions and Notes as to Occurrence and Medicinal or Other Values, by Joseph F. Rock Consulting Botanist, Board of Agriculture and Forestry Honolulu, Hawaii, 1920; transcribed and annotated by Samuel M. Ohukaniohia Gon III. Ethnobotany Research & Applications 6:405-442.

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The content of this page is based on information last generated on 15 October 2017 by PT. The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT.