China tree

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

China tree

(Plants) another name for chinaberry¹

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

chi•na•ber•ry

(ˈtʃaɪ nəˌbɛr i)

n., pl. -ries.

a tree, Melia azedarach, of the mahogany family, native to Asia but widely planted elsewhere for its ornamental yellow fruits and long clusters of fragrant purplish flowers. Also called China tree.

[1885–90, Amer.]

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Noun	1.	China tree - evergreen of tropical America having pulpy fruit containing saponin which was used as soap by Native Americans chinaberry, false dogwood, jaboncillo, Sapindus saponaria soapberry, soapberry tree - a tree of the genus Sapindus whose fruit is rich in saponin genus Sapindus, Sapindus - type genus of the Sapindaceae
	2.	China tree - tree of northern India and China having purple blossoms and small inedible yellow fruits; naturalized in the southern United States as a shade tree chinaberry tree, Melia azedarach, Melia azederach, Persian lilac, pride-of-India, azedarach, azederach, chinaberry genus Melia, Melia - type genus of the Meliaceae: East Indian and Australian deciduous trees with leaves resembling those of the ash tree - a tall perennial woody plant having a main trunk and branches forming a distinct elevated crown; includes both gymnosperms and angiosperms

References in classic literature ?

The wagon rolled up a weedy gravel walk, under a noble avenue of China trees, whose graceful forms and ever-springing foliage seemed to be the only things there that neglect could not daunt or alter,--like noble spirits, so deeply rooted in goodness, as to flourish and grow stronger amid discouragement and decay.

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Table 1.--Grading conditions of log products for northeastern China tree species.