Common Forest Trees of Hawaii (Native and Introduced)

Chinaberry, pride-of-India include tool handles, cabinets, furniture, and cigar boxes. It has not been used in Hawaii. Melia azedarach L. Extensively planted around the world for ornament and shade. This attractive tree is easily propagated from Mahogany family (Meliaceae) seeds, cuttings, and sprouts from stumps. It grows rap- Post-Cook introduction idly but is short-lived, and the brittle limbs are easily broken by the wind. Chinaberry, or pride-of-India, is a popular ornamental This species is poisonous, at least in some pans, and tree planted for its showy cluster of pale purplish five- has insecticidal properties. Leaves and dried fruits have parted spreading flowers and for the shade of its dense been used to protect stored clothing and other articles dark green foliage. It is further characterized by the bi- against insects. Various pans of the tree, including fruits, pinnate leaves with long-pointed saw-toothed leaflets flowers, leaves, bark, and roots, have been employed and pungent odor when crushed, and by the clusters of medicinally in different countries. The berries are toxic nearly round golden yellow poisonous berries conspicu- to animals and have killed pigs, though cattle and birds ous when leafless. reportedly eat the fruits. An oil suitable for illumination Small to medium-sized deciduous tree often becom- was extracted experimentally from the berries. The hard, ing 20Ð50 ft (6Ð15 m) tall and 1Ð2 ft (0.3Ð0.6 m) in angular, bony centers of the fruits, when removed by trunk diameter, with crowded, abruptly spreading boiling are dyed and strung as beads. In parts of Asia branches forming hemispherical or flattened crown. Bark this is a sacred tree. dark or reddish brown, smoothish, becoming furrowed. Commonly cultivated and naturalized through the Inner bark whitish, slightly bitter and astringent. Twigs Hawaiian Islands in lowlands. It is reported to be hardy green, hairless or nearly so. up to 9000 ft (2743 m) attitude, especially in uplands of Leaves alternate, 8Ð16 inches (20Ð40 cm) or more in Kauai, Maul, and Hawaii. Birds apparently have spread length, bipinnate or partly tripinnate. Leaflets numerous the fruits. Introduced into Hawaii about 1839, accord- short-stalked, paired along slender green branches of leaf ing to Degener. It may be seen commonly along the roads axis but single at ends, lance-shaped to ovate, 1Ð2 inches 3 3 of the Kona District of Hawaii and near Ulupalakua (2.5Ð5 cm) long and ⁄8Ð ⁄4 inch (1Ð2 cm) wide, short- Ranch on Maui. pointed and mostly one-sided at base, thin, hairless or nearly so, dark green on upper surface, and paler beneath. Special areas: Waimea Arboretum, Tantalus Flower clusters (panicles) 4Ð10 inches (10-25 cm) Champion long at leaf bases, long-stalked and branched. Flowers 3 Height 75 ft (22.9 m), c.b.h. 18.5 ft (5.6 m), spread 96 ft showy fragrant, numerous on slender stalks, about ⁄8 5 3 (29.3 m). Koahe, South Kona, Hawaii (1967). inch (10 mm) long and ⁄8Ð ⁄4 inch (15Ð19 mm) wide. 1 Calyx of 5 greenish sepals ⁄16 inch (1.5 mm) long; 5 Range 3 pale purplish or lilac-colored petals ⁄8 inch (10 mm) long, Native of southern Asia, probably from Iran and narrow, spreading and slightly turned back; usually 10 Himalaya to China, but cultivated and naturalized in 5 stamens on narrow violet tube of ⁄16 inch (8 mm); and tropical and warm temperate regions of the world. 5 pale green pistil ⁄16 inch (8 mm) long with disk at base, Widely planted and escaped and naturalized locally in 3Ð6 celled ovary, and long style. southeastern continental United States, California, Puerto 5 Fruits or berries (drupes) about ⁄8 inch (15 mm) in Rico, and Virgin Islands. diameter, smooth, but becoming a little shriveled, slightly Other common names fleshy. Stone hard, containing five or fewer narrow dark 5 ’inia, ‘ilinia (Hawaii); chinatree, umbrella-tree, umbrella brown seeds ⁄16 inch (8 mm) long. These fruits are bit- chinaberry, Indian-lilac, Persian lilac, beadtree; alelaila, ter, with poisonous or narcotic properties. Flowering lilaila, pasilla (Puerto Rico); lilac (Virgin Islands); from March to June in Hawaii, and the old slightly paraiso (Spanish); lelah (Pohnpei). wrinkled yellow fruits generally present. Sapwood yellowish white, heartwood light brown Umbrella chinaberry, or Texas umbrella-tree, is a hor- to reddish brown and attractively marked. Wood mod- ticultural variety with compact crown of erect radiating erately soft, weak and brittle, and very susceptible to branches and drooping foliage. The Hawaiian name ‘inia attack by drywood termites. Uses of the wood elsewhere is a corruption of the word India, according to Degener.

This information is from Agriculture Handbook no. 679 by Elbert L. Little Jr. and Roger G. Skolmen, published by the Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, in 1989. Its present format is that of a reprint version published by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. Common Forest Trees of Hawaii (Native and Introduced)

Chinaberry, pride-of-India Melia azedarach L. 2 Flowers, leaf, fruits, ⁄3 X (P.R. v. 1).

This information is from Agriculture Handbook no. 679 by Elbert L. Little Jr. and Roger G. Skolmen, published by the Forest Service, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, in 1989. Its present format is that of a reprint version published by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003.