INTRODUCTION TO CINNA BERRY TREE

       CINNA BERRY

Family – Meliaceae

Scientific name – Melia azedarach

COMMON NAMES :

1. Persian lilac or Bead Tree. Bakain, drek.
2. Melia is the Greek name of the Ash.
3. It is not an appropriate name for this tree which does not resemble an ash.
4. Azedarach (azad-darakht) is the Persian name for this tree.
5. Cinna berry in English.

GENERAL INFORMATION :

1. A moderate-sized deciduous tree, bark dark grey with long shallow vertical Assures.
2. Leaves 9—18 inches long, much divided into separate leaflets which are 0.5—2 inches long.
3. Flowers very numerous, 0.3- inch long, in loose clusters amongst the upper leaves, sweet-scented. Petals 5 or 6, lilac, rather narrow, spreading or somewhat recurved.
4. Stamens with the filaments united into a purple tube about 0.25- inch long, the tube toothed at the slightly widened top, anthers 10 or 12, sessile between the teeth of the tube on its inner side.
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6. Fruit 0.5-inch in diameter, globular, yellow and plump when ripe but becoming wrinkled, remaining long on the trees, containing a very hard usually 5—6 celled stone.
7. Leafless during the winter, the flowers appearing soon after the young foliage in March, April.
8. Fruit ripens after the monsoon, gradually drying and shrinking, and much of the fruit often still on the trees when the fresh leaves appear.
9. The common form of this tree has rather long branches which form a loose open crown.
10. Another form, sometimes seen, has a dense umbrella-shaped crown.
11. A third form flowers as a seedling, and continues flowering at irregular intervals for a few years by which time it has reached about 6 feet in height and begins to die off.
12. These forms come true to seed.

USES OF THE BEAD TREE :

1. Mainly used for ornament.
2. The tree is not long-lived and cannot be relied upon for more than about 20 years by which time it starts to die of and should be replaced.
3. The timber is not usually appreciated but is of fair quality, works well and is not
4. subject to insect attack.
5. The fruits are said to be poisonous and are used to some extent medicinally as is also the inner bark.
6. The stones of the fruits are used for necklaces and rosaries.

PROPAGATION :

1. By seed.
2. It is very easily grown and is a fast growing tree.

HABITAT :

1. Indigenous in some of the Himalayan valleys and in Upper Burma.
2. Cultivated and naturalized in all the less tropical parts of India and similar subtropical regions throughout the world.