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 | ||
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Distribution | Native 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Fruit |
Fruit yellow, subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, 1‒2 cm in diameter, usually persisting on the plant. |
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Seeds |
Seeds ca. 3.5 mm long, 1.6 mm in diameter, oblong, smooth, brown. |
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Chromosomes |
2n = 28. |
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Contributor |
Warren Wagner |