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Cordia sulcata; photograph (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2023-03-22

Cordia sulcata A.DC.

Mucilage manjack; Man Jack; White Manjack; Jack Tree

Cordiaceae · Cuba, Dominican Republic +4

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Cordia sulcata, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cordia sulcata, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cordia sulcata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCordia sulcata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCordia sulcata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCordia sulcata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 27 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.3°C
Record low 17.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,917mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, May to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cordia sulcata is known commonly as moral, white manjack, or mucilage manjack. It is a tree that can be found throughout the Caribbean islands from Cuba to Trinidad.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cordia sulcata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cordia

Cordia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cordiaceae. It contains 228 species of shrubs and trees, that are found in tropical and subtropical regions worldwide. Many of the species are commonly called manjack, while bocote may refer to several Central American species in Spanish.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cordia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,358 mm of 1,899 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,899 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,358 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 233 mm, driest month February at 77 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,315 mm to 2,450 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,917 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,899 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.3 °C, the absolute minimum 17.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.5 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 17.7 °C to 23.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.9 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -63 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cordia sulcata through the yearWarmest months June, July, August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 21.5 °C; 1,899 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°31.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 29–42RH 64–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 77 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 24–2725 / 24–2726 / 24–2826 / 25–2827 / 26–2928 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3027 / 26–2927 / 25–2826 / 24–27
Night °C22 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 19–2423 / 20–2524 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 19–25
Rain mm108 / 70–14177 / 53–10181 / 52–114131 / 80–204182 / 118–286145 / 88–206162 / 109–244200 / 134–273233 / 162–291231 / 172–289205 / 159–275144 / 94–187
DLI31 / 29–3335 / 34–3740 / 39–4142 / 42–4341 / 40–4342 / 40–4342 / 40–4341 / 39–4238 / 36–3934 / 32–3530 / 29–3229 / 28–31
RH %65 / 61–7064 / 61–6964 / 60–6865 / 62–7066 / 63–7266 / 62–7266 / 62–7267 / 63–7267 / 64–7268 / 64–7368 / 63–7266 / 62–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 77 grid cells holding the 125 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1439:2279 (18.025, -66.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 77 distinct grid cells holding 125 of the 125 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1439:2279 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-66.250, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 158 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker18.228, -66.173 · in the densest population, 153 records (58% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 266 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 125 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 146 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 518 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 141 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 266 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cordia sulcata, photograph 1did not loadCordia sulcata, photograph 2did not loadCordia sulcata, photograph 3did not loadCordia sulcata, photograph 4did not loadCordia sulcata, photograph 5did not loadCordia sulcata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Pitcairnia angustifolia Pitcairnia angustifolia Clapper Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreOncidium altissimum Oncidium altissimum Wydler's dancing-lady orchid Photo: CC BY, chrisdtGonzalagunia hirsuta Gonzalagunia hirsuta Mata de Mariposa Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreHeliconia caribaea Heliconia caribaea Lobsterclaw Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreThelypteris reticulata Thelypteris reticulata Aspleniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizAiphanes minima Aiphanes minima Grigri Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci

Other Cordia 32 in the reference

Cordia afra Cordia afra Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, JMKCordia africana Cordia africana Large-leaved Cordia Photo: CC BY, Augustin SoulardCordia alliodora Cordia alliodora Cypre Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCordia americana Cordia americana Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Cecilia Fer Díaz Cordia bogotensis Cordiaceae Cordia boissieri Cordia boissieri Mexican-olive Photo: CC BY, Joseph AubertCordia collococca Cordia collococca Clammy cherry Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCordia decandra Cordia decandra Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Jorge Herreros de LartundoCordia dentata Cordia dentata White cordia Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezCordia dichotoma Cordia dichotoma Fragrant manjack Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzCordia dodecandra Cordia dodecandra Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Deby GómezCordia ecalyculata Cordia ecalyculata Cordiaceae Photo: CC0, demianlescano all 33 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cordia macrophylla; Cordia toqueve; Gerascanthus sulcatus; Lithocardium sulcatum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cordiaceae
Described by
A.DC.
Native to
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti +3
Wild records
266 in range · 146 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.00_-66.250, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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