Chinaberry (LA Urban Forest Program)

Chinaberry

Melia azedarach

Summary ⁵

Melia azedarach, commonly known by many names, including white cedar,chinaberry tree,bead-tree, Cape lilac,syringa berrytree,Persian lilac, and Indian lilac, is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, that is native to Indomalaya and Australasia. The genus Melia includes four other species, occurring from southeast Asia to northern Australia. They are all deciduous or semi-evergreen trees.

Common names ⁶

chinaberry

China-berry

China berry

Chinaberrytree

pride-of-India

umbrella-tree

white cedar

Description ⁷

Medium sized, fast growing tree. The leaves are bipinnately compound with serrated margins on the ovate leaflets. The sweetly scented flowers are borne in large many flowered, axillary inflorescences with pale lilac petals and a dark purple staminal tube. Fruits fleshy and yellowish when ripe, persisting in a wrinkled state on the tree for a long time. The seeds are poisonous.

Description ⁸

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.

Description ⁹

Chinaberry, also called pride-of-India, umbrella-tree, and Persian lilac, is a fast-growing tree that can grow to 50 feet tall. Its twigs are slightly purple with light-brown spots (lenticels). The leaves are large (up to 2 ft. long), blue-green, with long stalks (petioles), and doubly compound (i.e., divided twice into smaller leaflets). Individual leaflets are toothed and pointed. The leaves turn golden-yellow in the fall. Flowers are small but showy, appearing in clusters at the end of branches in early spring. Each flower has five narrow pink petals surrounding a central purple-red tube. Fruits are round yellow berries, which mature into brown leathery seed capsules.

NOTE: Chinaberry may be confused with a native shrub, common elderberry (Sambucus canadensis). When in flower or fruit the two species may be distinguished by the color of those features; elderberry exhibits white flowers and dark-purple berries.

Fuentes y créditos

(c) Michael P. Riggs, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), subido por Michael P. Riggs
(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), https://collections.nmnh.si.edu/services/media.php?env=botany&irn=10240724
Ningún derecho reservado, http://www.flickr.com/photos/55368994@N06/13850406684/
(c) Paolo, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY), http://www.flickr.com/photos/27273988@N00/477068531
Adaptado por earthwatchtrees del trabajo de (c) Wikipedia, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-SA), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melia_azedarach
Dominio Publico, http://eol.org/data_objects/24267215
(c) Mark Hyde, Bart Wursten and Petra Ballings, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC), http://eol.org/data_objects/19240237
(c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4970514
(c) Desconocido, algunos derechos reservados (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/22948707