Edible: Fruit, Leaves, Flowers, Sap, Caution, Vegetable, Seeds, Seeds - oil
A medium sized tree. It grows to 5-18 m high. It has deep roots and normally keeps its leaves except when there is strong drought. The tree has a straight trunk and a rounded spreading crown. The bark is thick and grey. It is smooth when young and cracked when old. The leaves are alternate. The leaves are up to 35 cm long. They are made up of 7-17 leaflets. There is an odd number of leaflets. Each leaflet is 6-8 cm long. They are oblique with teeth along the edge. The flowers are small and white. Many flowers occur on branched stalks. The fruit are oval and smooth. They are 1.5 cm long by 1 cm wide. They are green when young but turn yellow or brown at maturity. There is one seed inside and it has a thick seed coat.
A tropical plant. It occurs in most of Africa in both wet and dry areas. It is salt tolerant. It grows in the Sahel. It originally comes from India. They can stand temperatures up to 49°C. Temperatures below freezing kill the plant. In Africa trees mostly grow between 50 an 1500 m altitude. They do best in dry subtropical climates. It will grow on dry shallow soils but grows on most kinds of soils. It can grow in soils with pH of 5 but does best with pH of 6.2. It can grow in arid places. It suits hardiness zones 11-12.
Common Names: Neem tree, Bevu, Dogon yaro, Geed hindi, Hithigas, Indian lilac, Ka dau, Kadu-nimb, Limba, Limbo, Limdo, Mahaneem, Mandvi, Margosa tree, Mirimiri, Neem dari, Niem, Nim, Nimba, Nimbay, Nimboni, Nimkauli, Nimpata, Nimu, Phak ka dao, Phak ki nin, Phak sdau, Pichumarda, Sadao, Sau dau, Sdao, Sdav, Svay reanov, Tama, Tamaga, Turi forta, Vapa chettu, Vembu, Vepa, Veypa marum,
Synonyms:
Antelea azadirachta (L.) Adelb.;
Azadirachta indica va. siamensis Valeton;
Melia azadirachta L.;
Melia indica Brand.