Melia azedarach L.

Flowering from March to May; fruiting from October to December.

Melia azedarach is occurring in Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Shandong, S Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, SE Xizang, Zhejiang of China, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Australia, Pacific islands (Solomon Islands).

Trees to 10 m tall, deciduous. Bark brownish gray, longitudinally exfoliating. Branches spreading; branchlets with leaf scars. Leaves odd-pinnate, 2-pinnate or 3-pinnate, 20-40 cm; leaflets opposite; leaflet blades ovate, elliptic, or lanceolate, 3-7 cm long, 2-3 cm wide, but terminal one usually slightly larger, both surfaces with stellate trichomes when young but glabrescent, secondary veins 12-16 on each side of midvein, outspread and ascending, base ± oblique and cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin crenate or sometimes entire, apex shortly acuminate. Thyrses ± ca. 1/2 as long as leaves, glabrous or covered with short lepidote pubescence. Flowers fragrant. Calyx 5-parted; sepals ovate to oblong-ovate, outside puberulent, apex acute. Petals lilac-colored, obovate-spatulate, 0.9-1.3 cm, both surfaces puberulent but usually outside more densely so. Staminal tube purple, 7-8 mm, with longitudinal stripes, glabrous or subglabrous, apical margin with 10 narrow lobes; lobes conic, further 2-3-lobed; anthers 10, inserted on inner side of lobes and alternate to lobes, narrowly elliptic, apex slightly mucronulate. Ovary spherical, glabrous, 5-8-locular, with 2 ovules per locule; style acerose; stigma capitate, not included within filament tube, apex 5-dentate. Drupe globose to ellipsoid, 1-3 cm long, 0.8-1.5 cm wide; endocarp ligneous. Seed ellipsoid.

The chromosomal number of Melia azedarach is 2n = 28 (Sarkar et al., 1980; Singhal and Gill, 1984; Sandhu and Mann, 1988).

Growing in mixed evergreen broad-leaved and deciduous forests, sparse forests, field margins, roadsides; 500-2100 m.

Melia azedarach is used medicinally, for industrial oil material, and for timber.