Neem

Azadirachta indica, the neem, is a fast-growing evergreen tree of the mahogany family, commonly 15 to 20 m tall, with a broad, dense, rounded crown and a short, straight trunk bearing fissured greyish-brown bark. The leaves are pinnately compound, up to about 35 cm long, with numerous curved, asymmetric, sharply toothed leaflets that are glossy green. Small, fragrant, honey-scented white flowers are borne in drooping branched panicles in the leaf axils. The fruit is a smooth, olive-like ellipsoid drupe that ripens from green to yellow, with a thin sweet pulp surrounding a hard stone containing one or two seeds rich in bitter oil. Native to the Indian subcontinent and now widely planted across the tropics, neem thrives in hot, dry, marginal soils and is renowned for its multipurpose medicinal and pesticidal uses.