Species
+

Melia azedarach L.

Aleli, Anesite, Bagalunga, Bead Tree

Climate known 79 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Melia azedarach, commonly known as the chinaberry tree, pride of India, bead-tree, Cape lilac, syringa berrytree, Persian lilac, Indian lilac, or white cedar, is a species of deciduous tree in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, that is native to Indomalaya and Australasia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Melia azedarach”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Meliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +25
Wild records
429 in range· 223 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jul, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1150mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 145 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to September at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1150 mm a year, wettest July at 145 mm, driest December at 61 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Antelaea javanica Gaertn.; Azedara speciosa Raf.; Azedaraca amena; Azedarach commelinii Medik.; Azedarach deleteria Medik. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to September at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (873 mm of 1150 mm) takes 8 months, February to September. Mean temperature moves 3.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1150 mm a year, wettest July at 145 mm, driest December at 61 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1150 mm a year at the habitat, 873 mm of it February to September. Wettest month July at 145 mm, driest December at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 738 mm to 2678 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 4.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.6 °C, the absolute minimum 1.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.1 °C in October (across the envelope cells 11.5 °C to 22.4 °C), warmest day 26.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Dec to 27 °C in Jul; mean night from 16 °C in Oct to 20 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Sep to Nov, is the three months around the coldest night. 1150 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 362 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–34RH 59–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 362 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 10–3024 / 12–3024 / 15–2924 / 21–2924 / 19–3026 / 16–3027 / 15–3127 / 17–3126 / 19–3025 / 21–2824 / 17–2823 / 12–29
Night °C17 / 2–2117 / 4–2116 / 7–2016 / 11–2216 / 10–2419 / 7–2520 / 6–2620 / 7–2617 / 9–2516 / 12–2217 / 9–2016 / 4–20
Rain mm71 / 12–158107 / 15–21594 / 25–19997 / 37–195106 / 44–285118 / 44–392145 / 37–382126 / 33–41180 / 35–35569 / 35–16376 / 22–13261 / 11–149
DLI32 / 16–4234 / 18–3931 / 24–3829 / 24–3729 / 18–3628 / 16–3528 / 18–3830 / 24–3531 / 27–3633 / 23–4131 / 18–4331 / 16–44
RH %61 / 52–6562 / 52–6662 / 52–6661 / 53–6661 / 55–6761 / 57–6762 / 56–6762 / 55–6860 / 54–6659 / 54–6460 / 53–6460 / 53–63

Each figure is the median across the 362 grid cells holding the 417 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2489:6616 (-34.475, 150.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 362 distinct grid cells holding the 417 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2489:6616 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -34.50_150.625, lapse-corrected -341 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 27 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Philippines, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia· introduced: France, Portugal, Spain, Albania, Italy, Kriti, Sicilia, Yugoslavia, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea, Mali, Togo, Central African Republic, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, St.Helena, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Gulf States, Yemen, Japan, Korea, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Christmas I., Norfolk Is., South Australia, Victoria, Fiji, Nauru, New Caledonia, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Missouri, Oklahoma, New York, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.729, 150.985 · in the densest population, 156 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 429 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 223 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 69 km away. 1360 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 429 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Melia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarachMelia azedarach

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) 岸本年郎, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Melia azedarach, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Cytotoxic effect of Green synthesized silver nanoparticles using Melia azedarach against in vitro HeLa cell lines and lymphoma mice model
Raman Sukirtha, Kandula Manasa Priyanka, Jacob Joe Antony, Soundararajan Kamalakkannan (2011) · Process Biochemistry
Indigenous uses of ethnomedicinal plants among forest-dependent communities of Northern Bengal, India
Antony Joseph Raj, Saroj Biswakarma, Nazir A. Pala, Gopal Shukla (2018) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Melia azedarach leaf extract and their antifungal activities: In vitro and in vivo
Siwar Jebril, Raoudha Khanfir Ben Jenana, Chérif Dridi (2020) · Materials Chemistry and Physics
An ethnobotanical survey of indigenous medicinal plants in Hafizabad district, Punjab-Pakistan
Muhammad Umair, Muhammad Altaf, Arshad Mehmood Abbasi (2017) · PLoS ONE
Removal of aqueous Cr(VI) by a magnetic biochar derived from Melia azedarach wood
Xin Zhang, Lei Lv, Yingzhi Qin, Min Xu (2018) · Bioresource Technology
Metabolites from Aspergillus fumigatus , an Endophytic Fungus Associated with Melia azedarach , and Their Antifungal, Antifeedant, and Toxic Activities
Xiaojun Li, Qıang Zhang, Anling Zhang, Jin‐Ming Gao (2012) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Secondary Metabolites from the Endophytic Botryosphaeria dothidea of Melia azedarach and Their Antifungal, Antibacterial, Antioxidant, and Cytotoxic Activities
Jian Xiao, Qıang Zhang, Yu-Qi Gao, Jiang‐Jiang Tang (2014) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Antifeedant and Insecticide Properties of a Limonoid from Melia azedarach (Meliaceae) with Potential Use for Pest Management
Marı́a C. Carpinella, María Teresa Defagó, Graciela Valladares, Sara M. Palacios (2002) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Chlorophyll catabolism in senescing plant tissues: In vivo breakdown intermediates suggest different degradative pathways for Citrus fruit and parsley leaves
Dekel Amir-Shapira, Eliezer Ε. Goldschmidt, Arie Altman (1987) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Detecting long‐term growth trends using tree rings: a critical evaluation of methods
Richard L. Peters, Peter Groenendijk, Mart Vlam, Pieter A. Zuidema (2014) · Global Change Biology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 128 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.