Fruit
The fruit is a smooth (glabrous) olive-like drupe which varies in shape from elongate oval to nearly roundish, and when ripe are 1.4–2.8 centimetres (0.55–1.1 in) by 1.0–1.5 centimetres (0.39–0.59 in). The fruit skin (exocarp) is thin and the bitter-sweet pulp (mesocarp) is yellowish-white and very fibrous. The mesocarp is 0.3–0.5 centimetre (0.12–0.20 in) thick. The white, hard inner shell (endocarp) of the fruit encloses one, rarely two or three, elongated seeds (kernels) having a brown seed coat.
The neem tree is very similar in appearance to its relative, the Chinaberry (Melia azedarach). The Chinaberry tree is toxic to most animals, especially to fish, but birds are known to gorge themselves on the Chinaberries, the seeds passing harmlessly through their unique digestive systems.
Read more about this topic: Azadirachta Indica
Famous quotes containing the word fruit:
“Let those who go home tell the same story of you:
Of action with a common purpose, action
None the less fruitful if neither you nor we
Know, until the moment after death
What is the fruit of action.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)
“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 12:33.
“Then, Celia, let us reap our joys
Ere Time such goodly fruit destroys.”
—Thomas Carew (1589–1639)