NOS MELIA PAGE

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'Jade Snowflake' is strange, unique, and shocking as a young container plant. Later is becomes open, ghostly, guant, and sometimes unseen; the same wide difference between jade and snowflakes. It is surely one of the hardest plants to photograph. This is the best of two dozen images taken with a 3.4 megapixel camera in several light conditions. This is from the White Garden at the JC Raulston Arboretum where it was introduced. If this is not the original plant it is surely the oldest. Click on this image for fullscreen version.

Melia - Literature
li: Mabberly, D.J. 1984. A monograph of Melia in Asia and the Pacific.
li: Gard. Bull Straits Settlem. 37(1): 49-64. (various species
li: and cultivars discussed).

Melia azedarach 'Floribunda'
bt: flowers on young plants.
use: uses as a ground cover when sheared.
ns: as a botanical taxon var. floribunda, the taxon is considered part of the typical variety. As a cultivar
ns: it has apparently taken on another, more distinct identity.
 
Melia azedarach 'Gold Flash' (7/02)
ns: a listed name, gold-leaved or variegated by one report.

Melia azedarach 'Jade Snowflake'
lc: mottled white on the usual glossy jade green base
ns: Yokoi and Hirose report another white spotted clone in their book
ns: but it is apparently unnamed.
or: farmyard near San Antonio TX in fall 1989 by Scott Ogdon
li: Raulston, J.C. 1991. Plants displayed to NCAN Nurserymen. NC State
li: Univ. Arb. News. August 1991: 26.

Melia azedarach 'Lady Gwenda' (11/01)
ha: tall, upright
lc: "highly variegated leaves (>50% loss of green surface area)". We do not know the color
lc: but 'Jade Snowflake' and another Japanese clone (see above) can reach 50% surface coverage
lc: with white chimeral tissue.
or: spontaneous mutation of species
li: Hartley, M. 1999. Plant Varieties Journal 12(1): 64-65

Melia azedarach var. toosendan (Sieb. & Zucc.) Makino
ls, lm: blades entire to coarsely serrate - not as bold incised as the typical variety
frd: fruit 1.7-2.2cm wide - larger than typical var.

Melia azedarach 'Umbraculiformis'
ha: arching-spreading with wide domed or umbrella shape and multiple
ha: stems. Branching is denser than species. To some eyes it appears
ha: to be a cold hardy houseplant of tropical appearance.
prop: true to seed in rural areas of the Southeast and often seen on
prop: properties near farm houses and road side homesteads. Though an
prop: attractive plant its seedling production can be too high for
prop: well-tended gardens.