The Chinaberry or Bead Tree (Melia azedarach), is a small tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae, native to China, also occasionally known as Persian Lilac.
The flowers are pale purple, in clusters, the fruit marble-sized, light yellow at maturity, hanging on the tree all winter, gradually becoming almost white. The leaves have been used as a natural insecticide to keep with stored food, but must not be eaten as they are highly poisonous. The flowers are unattractive to bees and butterflies. All parts of the plant are poisonous to man if eaten, though some birds are able to eat the fruit, spreading the seeds in their droppings.
The hard, spherical seeds were widely used for making rosaries and other products requiring beads, before their replacement by modern plastics.
The plant is considered an invasive species in the southern United States, however nurseries continue to sell the trees, and seeds are also widely available.
The genus Melia includes four other species, occurring from southeast Asia to northern Australia. They are all deciduous or semi_evergreen small trees.
Glass, plastic, and stone are probably the most common materials, but beads are also made from bone, horn, ivory, metal, shell, pearl, coral, gemstones, polymer clay, metal clay, resin, synthetic minerals, wood, ceramic, fiber, paper, and the seeds of the Beadtree and other trees.
Seedbead machinery uses glass rods softened to a red heat, fed into a steel die stamp that forms the shape of the bead with a reciprocating needle that forms the hole.
Seedbeads used by craftspersons should not be confused with SeedBeads™: laboratory-grown beads made of PTFE used to generate seeds of protein crystals.
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