Melia Dubia
Family : Meliaceae
Common Name : Malabar Neem
Hindi Name : kadukhajur, Ghora nim
Tamil Name : Malai Vembu
Kannada Name : Baevu, Betta
Synonym : Melia composita
Tree Characteristics :
Melia dubia is a large deciduous perennial tree growing from 6 to 30 metres in height.
Bark is smooth, greenish when young, turning dark brown when mature and fissures
with age forming large rectangular flakes. Wood trunk has few or no branches arising
from about 8 m. Young branchlets are scurfy, tomentose, terete, turning glabrous on
maturity into branchlets. Leaves are compound,bipinnate to tripinnate. The leaves are shed in December and flush of new leaves are found in February – March along with flowers. Fruits ripen during November to February in the next year. Fruits ripen from October to February. The fruit is drupaceous ovoid or ellipsoid about 1.5 cm long, smooth, shinning and yellowish when ripe.
Nursery Practice :
Seed sowing: It is best to sow seeds amid March – April. Cleaned and dried seeds ought to be sown in the open raised nursery beds, in penetrated lines, 5 cm separated. Seeds don't sprout in sand. They must be sown in soil: ranch yard compost medium in the proportion 2:1. A 1:1 proportion can likewise be received. Around 6-7 kg of dried drupes containing around 1500 numbers are required for one standard nursery bed. The seeds sown should be watered frequently, twice every day. At spots where daytime temperature is not high, or where nursery beds are in shade, the bed ought to be secured with a covering sheet to hold temperature in the medium. Germination happens inside of 90 days.
Vegetative proliferation: Juvenile stem cuttings and coppice shoots react well to 1000 – 2000 ppm IBA (fluid detailing). Coppice from more established trees reacts better to establishing. Pencil thick cuttings should taken for spread. Slim shoots are effortlessly powerless to root decay. The shoots can be put on sand medium and watered twice per day. A procurement for waste is an unquestionable requirement as water logging pulverizes the shoots. Season additionally assumes a noteworthy part in the establishing of cuttings. Drier seasons are favorable for establishing. Around 75 for each penny establishing can be gotten. No. of fruits per Kg is 250 to 300; Germination Percentage is 15 to 20.
Economic Use:
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One of the best Agroforestry species known for its straight and fast growth
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Wood is suitable raw materials for plywood industries, paper and pulp industries and for Energy plantations.
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The leaf extracts from the plant has medicinal value and it is used as fodder also.
