Chinaberrytree (Melia azedarach)
From Bugwoodwiki
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Miller, J.H., E.B, Chambliss, N.J. Loewenstein. 2010. A Field Guide for the Identification of Invasive Plants in Southern Forests. General Technical Report SRS-119. Asheville, NC. United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. 126 p.
Contents |
Plant
Deciduous tree to 50 feet (15 m) in height and 2 feet (60 cm) in diameter, much branched with multiple boles, lacy dark green leaves having a musky odor, and clusters of lavender flowers in spring yielding persistent, yellow berries. Caution: Fruit (berries) is poisonous.
Stem
Twigs stout, glossy greenish brown with light dots (lenticels). No terminal bud. Numerous broad, V-shaped, raised leaf scars with 3 bundle scars below a domed fuzzy bud. Bark dark brown and becoming increasingly fissured with age. Wood soft and white.
Leaves
Alternate spiraled, bipinnately compound, 1 to 2 feet (30 to 60 cm) long and 9 to 16 inches (23 to 40 cm) wide. Leafstalk lime green with base slightly clasping stem. Each leaflet lanceolate with tapering tips, 1 to 3 inches (2.5 to 8 cm) long and 0.5 to 1.2 inches (1.2 to 3 cm) wide. Margins varying from entire to coarsely crenate to serrate and wavy. Glossy dark green with light-green midvein above and pale green with lighter green midvein beneath, becoming golden yellow in fall.
Flowers
March to May. Showy panicles from lower axils of new stems. Five pinkish-lavender to whitish petals, stamens united in dark-purple tube. Five green sepals. Fragrant.
Fruit and seeds
July to January. Berrylike spherical drupe 0.5 to 0.7 inch (1.2 to 1.8 cm) wide persisting through winter and containing a stone with 1 to 6 seeds. Light green turning yellowish green then yellowish tan. Poisonous to humans and livestock.
Ecology
Common on roadsides, fencerows, at forest margins, and around old homesites, but rare at high elevations. Somewhat shade and flood tolerant. Occurs from uplands to marshes. Viable seed can be produced by 4- and 5-year-old plants. Forms colonies from root sprouts, sprouts from root collars, and seedlings. Spreads by abundant bird-dispersed seeds. Germination suppressed under mature trees but seeds germinate following parent tree removal.
Resembles
Resembles common elderberry [Sambucus nigra L. ssp. canadensis (L.) R. Bolli], a spreading crowned shrub with once pinnately compound leaves having leaflets with finely serrate margins and green to dark-purple berries in flat-topped clusters.
History and use
Introduced in the mid-1800s from Asia. Widely planted as a traditional ornamental around homesites. Extracts potentially useful for natural pesticides. Though softer and less durable than many other members of the mahogany family, chinaberry wood has an attractive grain and takes a good finish for inexpensive cabinetry.
Distribution
Found throughout the region with the most frequent forest infestations in east TX; west LA; south to central MS, AL, GA, and SC; and north FL.
Chinaberrytree (Melia azedarach L.) is a traditional widely escaped ornamental that is deciduous, growing to about 50 feet (15 m) tall. It has lacy, many divided leaves that are dark green, turning yellow in fall. Showy panicles of tiny blue flowers in spring yield abundant round yellow pulpy fruit that persist during winter. Stump sprouts, root sprouts, and seedlings will eventually emerge after main stems are killed. Viable seed can be produced by 4- and 5-year-old plants. Species spreads by abundant bird-dispersed seeds.
Management strategies
- Remove old ornamental plantings, and control sprouts and seedlings. Bag and dispose of fruit in a dumpster or burn.
- Treat the abundant seedlings after parent tree is killed.
- Rapid growth requires foliar sprays in the first year.
- Cut and bulldoze when fruit are not present.
- Manually pull new seedlings and tree wrench saplings when soil is moist, ensuring removal of all roots.
- Burning treatments are suspected of having minimal topkill effect due to scant litter.
Recommended control procedures
Trees. Using dilutions and cut-spacings specified on the herbicide label (anytime except March and April) make stem injections using Arsenal AC* or Pathway*, or when safety to surrounding vegetation is desired, Garlon 3A. For felled trees, apply these herbicides to stump tops immediately after cutting. Also, ORTHO Brush-B-Gon, Enforcer Brush Killer, and Vine-X are effective undiluted for treating cut-stumps and available in retail garden stores (safe to surrounding plants).
Saplings. Apply a basal spray of Garlon 4 as a 10- to 20-percent solution (2 to 5 pints per 3-gallon mix) or Stalker* as a 3-percent solution (12 ounces per 3-gallon mix) plus Garlon 4 as a 15-percent solution (3.5 pints per 3-gallon mix) mixed in a labeled basal oil product, vegetable oil or mineral oil with a penetrant, or fuel oil or diesel fuel (where permitted).
Sprouts and seedlings. Thoroughly wet all leaves with one of the following herbicides in water with a surfactant (July to October): Garlon 3A or Garlon 4 as a 2-percent solution (8 ounces per 3-gallon mix) when safety to surrounding plants is desired; or Arsenal AC* as a 1-percent solution (4 ounces per 3-gallon mix), or Arsenal PowerLine* as a 0.5-percent solution (2 ounces per 3-gallon mix).
* Nontarget plants may be killed or injured by root uptake.
Images
 Photo by James H. Miller & Ted Bodner, Southern Weed Science Society, Bugwood.org May |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org July |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org November |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org January |
 Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org July |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org July |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org November |  Photo by James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org July |
