xocotl (Mdz27r)

xocotl (Mdz27r)
Element from a Compound

Glyph or Iconographic Image Description: 

This element for the xocotl (a native plum and plum tree) has been carved from the compound sign for the place name, Axocopan. The tree shown here has a leader and two side branches. The trunk and branches have a terracotta color. Each branch ends with two-tone green foliage and three yellow balls attached at the end of short red stems. The yellow balls are presumably the sour fruit that the tree is known to produce.

Description, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Added Analysis: 

The xocotl tree has two styles in the Codex Mendoza (see below, right, for comparisons).

Added Analysis, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Source Manuscript: 
Mendoza/Mendocino, Codex (Mdz)
Date of Manuscript: 

c. 1541, but by 1553 at the latest

Creator's Location (and place coverage): 

Mexico City

Syntax: 
noun(s)
Cultural Content & Iconography: 
Food, Eating, Cooking
Plants, Flora
Cultural Content, Credit: 

Stephanie Wood

Colors: 
green (dark)
green (light)
orange/terracotta
red
yellow or golden
Shapes and Perspectives: 
circle(s) (small, often concentric)
tripartite
vertical, upright
Glyph or Iconographic Image: 
Relevant Nahuatl Dictionary Word(s): 

xoco(tl), a native plum and the tree, https://nahuatl.wired-humanities.org/content/xocotl

Additional Scholars' Interpretations: 

hog plum tree

Image Source: 

Codex Mendoza, folio 27 recto, https://digital.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/objects/2fea788e-2aa2-4f08-b6d9-648c00..., image 64 of 188.

Image Source, Rights: 

The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford, hold the original manuscript, the MS. Arch. Selden. A. 1. This image is published here under the UK Creative Commons, “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License” (CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0).

See Also: 

Axocopan (Mdz27r)

xocotl (Mdz8r)

xocotl (Mdz55r)