The Magi's Garden : China Berry

Melia azedarach
Folk Names: Africa Lilac, Azederach, Azadirachta, Bead Tree, China-tree, Hagbush, Holy Tree, Hoptree, Indian Lilac Tree, Margosa, Neem, Nim, Pride of China, Pride of India, Pride Tree

Description: The China Berry is a short-lived, deciduous tree of southwestern Asia, especially if the Himalayas, and naturalized to the West Indies and southern US. It will grow from thirty-five to fifty feet tall with a thick trunk and spreading branches covered in furrowed bark. The branches are fragile and easily broken by wind. The leaves are alternate, bipinnate, and ovate-acuminate. The entire leaf is one to three feet long with numerous pointed, sharply serrate or lobed leaflets, elliptic to lanceolate in shape. The fragrant purplish or lilac flowers grow in long peduncle panicles in early spring or the beginning of summer. Each flower had five petals and a central, dark-violet, staminal tube. The fruit is a nearly rounded, yellow drupe less than an inch across with a bony, molded, perforated seed. The flesh of the fruit has an unpleasant smell, especially when ripe. It is inedible and poisonous in sufficient quantities. The tree tolerates all but severe frosts and average soil with little water.

Effects:
Planet: Jupiter
Element:
Associated Deities:

Traditions:
The seeds are used as beads, especially for Rosaries and prayer beads.

Magic:
China Berry seeds are good luck charms. Carry them to bring change.

The gum is considered an aphrodisiac.

Known Combinations:
none known

Medical Indications: (Caution: fruit is potentially poisonous) Parts Used: root bark, seed
China Berry has been put to use as an anthelmintic, astringent, bitter tonic, emetic, emmenagogue, and purgative. A decoction of root bark is purgative and emetic in large doses. It can also promote the onset of menstruation. The seeds and oil from the fruit is used to purge intestinal worms. Fruit pulp is used to get rid of lice.

In India, the bitter and astringent bark is used as a tonic.

Nutrition:
Not edible

Mercantile Uses:
China Berry is sometimes used as an insecticide. The wood is also used as ornamental lumber comparable to Mahogany. The tree is most often planted as an ornamental shade tree.