Identification of the promising accessions of spistan (Cordia myxa Roxb.) using morphological and fruit‐related traits

Abstract

The family Boraginaceae includes about 2740 species that are in 148 genera. One of the most important genera of this family is Cordia, which is in the form of trees and shrubs. There are reported to be 300 species in the genus Cordia (Yadav and Yadav, 2013). This scientific name is given to this genus out of respect for the botanist Valerius Cordus (Hussain and Kakoti, 2013). Various parts, such as fruits, leaves, stem bark, seeds, and roots, in the plants of most species of this genus have been used in traditional medicine (Yadav and Yadav, 2013). One of the species in this genus is C. myxa Roxb. (Syn. C. obliqua, C. crenata). Common names of this species include Assyrian plum, lasura, laveda, pidar, panugeri, naruvilli, geduri, spistan, burgund dulu wanan, and ntege. It is in the form of a medium-sized deciduous tree and its height reaches 10.50 m (Jackson, 1977). Flowering time of this plant begins in the last week of April and continues until late May. Its ripening time is from early July to late August (Gupta and Das Gupta, 2015).