Melia azedarach L.

“Persian Lilac” is a fast growing tree of the plains and foot-hills, cultivated along road-sides and in villages. The fruit is eaten by goats and sheep, and the stony endocarps are used as beads.

This species is cultivated and sometimes naturalized in many warm-temperate and tropical parts of the world. Because of its extensive cultivation and tendency to become naturalized in disturbed habitats, its original wild distribution is uncertain.

It is used medicinally, for industrial oil material, and for timber.

Tree, up to 12 m tall; young shoots tomentose. Leaves 2-(3)-pinnate, up to 60 cm long; leaflets opposite, elliptic, 2.5-5 cm long, 5-19 mm broad, serrate to sub-serrate, acuminate, often oblique, sub-sessile. Flowers lilac, sweet-scented, in axillary panicles; pedicel 2-3 mm long, puberulous. Calyx 5-6-lobed; lobes c. 2 mm long, acute, pubescent. Petals 7-9 mm long, spathulate to lanceolate, ciliate, imbricate in bud. Staminal tube 6-7 mm long, cylindrical, expanded at the base and apex, 10-striate, with 20 teeth at the apex; anthers sessile, 1 bet¬ween each pair of teeth. Disc glabrous, fused with the ovary base. Ovary usually 5-locular; style 4-5 mm long; stigma capitate. Drupe 1.5-2 cm long, globose, 3-6-seeded, yellow when ripe.

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 × 2-3 cm 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- or 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 × 0.8-1.5 cm; endocarp ligneous. Seed ellipsoid. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Oct-Dec.

Iran, Himalaya, east to China. Cultivated.

Distribution: Wild in W. Himalaya, up to 1700m. Cultivated and naturaliz¬ed in parts of Iran, China, Burma, Turkey, India & W. Pakistan.

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 [Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Laos, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Australia, Pacific islands (Solomon Islands)].

700-1100 m

Fl. Per. March-April.

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

Melia azedarach subvar. intermedia Makino; M. azedarach var. intermedia (Makino) Makino; M. azedarach var. subtripinnata Miquel; M. azedarach var. toosendan (Siebold & Zuccarini) Makino; M. japonica G. Don var. semperflorens Makino; M. toosendan Siebold & Zuccarini.