Flora of the Hawaiian Islands
Dicotyledon Literature for Melia azedarach
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020.
   Meliaceae -- The Mahogany Family Bibliography
      Melia azedarach

Common name(s): bead tree, `ilinia, `inia, chinaberry, Pride-of-India
General Information
DistributionNative from India to Nepal, south and east through Malesia to tropical Australia and the Solomon Islands, widely cultivated and sometimes becoming naturalized.In the Hawaiian Islands, naturalized on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
















Habit
Tree occasionally to 20 m tall, bark bitter, reddish brown, becoming furrowed with age; branches spreading.
Leaves
Leaves petiolate, bipinnate, usually 15‒80 cm long, 20‒30 cm wide, with 3‒7 pairs of lateral rachises, each with 3‒7 pairs of leaflets; leaflets 3‒7 cm long, ovate to lanceolate or elliptic, glabrate with age, margin subentire to serrate; petiole 8‒30 cm long.
Flowers
Inflorescences thyrsoid, peduncle 1‒3 cm long. Flowers with calyx lobes green, lanceolate to elliptic, 2‒3 mm long; petals pale lavender, oblanceolate to oblong, 8‒12 mm long; staminal column dark purple.
Fruit
Fruit yellow, subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, 1‒2 cm in diameter, usually persisting on the plant.
Seeds
Seeds ca. 3.5 mm long, 1.6 mm in diameter, oblong, smooth, brown.
Chromosomes
2n = 28.
Contributor
Warren Wagner