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Azadirachta indica A. Juss.
Synonym : Melia azadirachta
L.
Family
: Meliaceae
Local Names
: Aryaveepu, Neem, Indian
lilac, Margosa Tree
Flowering
and fruiting period:
February – September
Distribution: Indo-Malesia
Habitat: Dry deciduous
forests, also widely planted
IUCN
status:
Least concern
Endemic:
No
Uses: Fruits edible,
Ayurvedic, firewood, drought tolerant, young leaves edible, anti-helminthic. A
very bitter flavour, they are often eaten as a pre-meal appetizer. Among its
many benefits, the one that is most unusual and immediately practical is the
control of farm and household pests. Some entomologists now conclude that neem
has such remarkable powers for controlling insects that it will usher in a new
era in safe, natural pesticides
Key
Characters:
Neem, a evergreen tree with bark greyish-brown having verticale striations.
Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, rachis slender and swollen at base.
Leaflets are opposite; with lanceolate
or falcate lamina, and
serrated margin. Flowers are bisexual, white, in axillary panicles; sepals 5,
ovate, margin ciliate; petals 5, free, white, oblong-obovate, pubescent, and
imbricate. Staminal tube glabrous; anthers 10; ovary superior, style slender,
stigma terete, 3-lobed. Fruit is a
drupe.