Melia (plant)
Encyclopedia
Melia is a genus
of flowering
tree
s in the mahogany
family
, Meliaceae
. The name is derived from μηλια, the Greek
word Theophrastus
(c. 371 – c. 287 BC) used for Fraxinus ornus
, which has similar leaves
.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of flowering
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s in the mahogany
Swietenia mahagoni
Swietenia mahagoni, commonly known as the West Indies Mahogany, is a species of Swietenia native to southern Florida, USA, The Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola. It is the species from which the original mahogany wood was produced....
family
Family (biology)
In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...
, Meliaceae
Meliaceae
The Meliaceae, or the Mahogany family, is a flowering plant family of mostly trees and shrubs in the order Sapindales....
. The name is derived from μηλια, the Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
word Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
(c. 371 – c. 287 BC) used for Fraxinus ornus
Fraxinus ornus
Fraxinus ornus is a species of Fraxinus native to southern Europe and southwestern Asia, from Spain and Italy north to Austria and the Czech Republic, and east through the Balkans, Turkey, and western Syria to the Lebanon.It is a medium-sized deciduous tree growing to 15–25 m tall with a trunk up...
, which has similar leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
.
Selected species
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- List sources :
Formerly placed here
- Azadirachta excelsa (Jack) M.Jacobs (as M. excelsa Jack)
- Azadirachta indica A.Juss. (as M. azadirachta L.)
- Cipadessa baccifera (Roth) Miq. (as M. baccifera Roth)
- Dysoxylum parasiticum (Osbeck) Kosterm. (as M. parasitica Osbeck)
- Sandoricum koetjape (Burm.f.) Merr. (as M. koetjape Burm.f.)