Azadirachta indica
Azadirachta indica is a fast-growing and long-lived evergreen tree with a wide-spreading, dense, ovoid crown; it can grow about 15 metres tall with occasional specimens up to 25 metres.
It has a short, straight bole that can be 100cm in diameter, and long, spreading branches that form a dense, large, oval or rounded crown.
A true multipurpose tree, neem is a very valuable plant to grow. It is a very effective medicinal herb, provides food, timber, a very good insecticide and repellent and many other commodities. The tree has been introduced and established throughout the tropics and subtropics for its highly valued hardiness, its almost year-round shade, and its multiple wood and non-wood products.
Bauhinia hildebrandtii
Bauhinia hildebrandtii is a deciduous shrub or tree growing up to 10 metres tall. The bole is up to 30cm in diameter, it is usually short and poorly shaped.
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use of its timber.
Bixa orellana
Bixa orellana is a small but fairly fast-growing evergreen shrub or small tree growing from 2 - 8 metres tall. The bole can be 10 - 30cm in diameter.
This plant is very important to local people, providing a wide range of foods and materials.
It is commonly grown in many areas of the tropics, especially the Americas, as an ornamental and for the red substance surrounding the seeds, widely used as a dye, food coloring, flavoring, and insect repellent.
Bougainvillea spectabilis
Bougainvillea is an evergreen, climbing shrub producing stems up to 10 metres long.
The plant can support itself on other plants by means of thorns carried in the leaf axils, though in cultivation it might need tying in to pergolas etc.
A drink can be made from the flower bracts. The plant is widely grown as an ornamental from the warm temperate to the tropical zones, and is often grown in greenhouses in climates that are unsuitable for it.
Calotropis procera
Calotropis procera is a large, erect shrub growing 4 metres or more tall. The plant can sometimes produce a single bole that is free of branches for up to the first 2.5 metres.
The tree has a wide range of medicinal uses and is the source of various materials, especially fibre. It has been cultivated in South America and on the Caribbean Islands for the production of fibres. It is well suited for intensive energy farming in arid or semi-arid regions where frost is not a limiting factor. It is cultivated as a medicinal plant in China.
Cananga odorata
Cananga odorata, or ylang ylang, is a very fast-growing, straggling, pendulous evergreen tree with branches that droop in long leafy sprays that can be 3 - 6 metres long.
The tree can grow from 3 - 30 metres tall with a straight bole up to 30cm in diameter.
Ylang ylang provides a very popular essential oil with a wide range of uses. The plant also has many medicinal applications and is a source of wood and fibre. It is often cultivated in the tropics, and also protected when forest areas are cleared, for its flowers and the essential oil that can be obtained from them and also for its timber.
Ylang ylang is also grown in gardens as an ornamental plant - there is a dwarf form that grows only 1.5 metres tall.
Capsicum frutescens
Capsicum frutescens is a much-branched, erect, perennial plant growing from 1 - 2 metres tall. The stems can become more or less woody, at least near the base.
This species is widely grown throughout the world, but especially in warm temperate to tropical climates for its edible fruit, which is used as a food flavouring, and also for its medicinal virtues.
Carica papaya
Carica papaya, the papaya, is a small, fast-growing but short-lived, evergreen tree growing 3 - 10 metres tall with a bole 10 - 30cm in diameter. The plant is usually without side-branches, although these can be produced if the plant is injured or the growing tip is removed.
Although it adopts the habit of a tree, the bole is non-woody and somewhat hollow.
One of the most popular and delicious of tropical fruits, papaya is widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. The tree also has a wide range of other uses, particularly for the medicinal value of its fruits and leaves.
Carpodiptera africana
Carpodiptera africana is a shrub or tree, usually growing from 1 - 13.5 metres tall but sometimes growing up to 20 metres.
The plant is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food, medicine and source of wood.
