Melia azedarach chinaberry

Melia azedarach at Windhover. Sairus Patel, 19 May 2018

Flowers and leaves of Melia azedarach at Windhover. Sairus Patel, 19 May 2018

Persian lilac, false neem, chinaberry, and – in Australia – white cedar: the many names of this tree attest to its vast natural and even wider cultivated range. Delicate bipinnate leaves well over a foot long, and gauzy clusters of small lilac flowers in May, identify this sole representative of the mahogany family at Stanford. Each tiny flower has 5 whitish petals flushed pink-mauve on the outside. From the center rises a ribbed tube of surprisingly deep purple – the fusion of its ten stamens, with a fringed opening lined by golden anthers. The flowers often carry a faint lilac scent.

The small cherry-sized fruit matures yellow-brown hangs ornamentally on the leafless tree through winter, though the fleshy outer layer is toxic. Inside lies an elongated, bony pit, perforated at each end so that a pin may be passed through it. This naturally lends itself to threading for rosaries, hence such names as arbor sancta in Spain and bead tree elsewhere.

Azad dirakht, Persian for free tree (or noble tree), gave rise to the species name and also to the genus of the closely related neem, Azadirachta indica, which has singly pinnate leaves and white flowers. Still, the two species have long been confused. Linnaeus placed both in the genus Melia, Greek for manna ash, following earlier botanists who likened their compound leaves to those of ash trees.

Both species have been used medicinally and as insecticides, as well as for their durable wood. In the American South during the Civil War era, chinaberry fruit were used to make “poor man’s soap” and agricultural pesticides. Neem seed oil products are sold in the States as natural pesticides. In India, neem twigs frayed at one end are still promoted for use as simple toothbrushes, then split into tongue scrapers; neem extracts also appear in toothpaste.

Chinaberry was propagated and planted in preparation for the University’s opening in 1891. An old specimen stood until recently north of the Mausoleum, near the giant deodar cedar, perhaps dating from those early days. Fallen yet still rooted, with one upright trunk-like branch, it survived until around 2022.

Six trees from the Australian portion of the species’ native range – once considered a distinct form – were planted by Professor Ron Bracewell in 1976 on Stanford Avenue opposite Peter Coutts Road; four remain. They have performed admirably in heavy adobe soil without irrigation. A fine example planted in 2006 stands at the northeast corner of Windhover; others planted at the same time in the Papua New Guinea Garden and the north side of the Art Gallery have since been removed.

The Australian trees are said to have less colorful flowers, more consistently rounded fruit, and smaller leaflets than Indian cultivars popular in horticulture. Our Windhover specimen certainly has larger leaflets than the group of Australian origin; further comparison is warranted.

Illustrations: fruit, leaf, and leaflet.