permaculture

[Felicity Wright <flickwright@ozemail.com.au>]

Tea Tree definitely does not equal Neem Tree!

The Neem is a large tropical tree with maple type leaves originally from
India. I have grown it in Arnhem Land (northern Australia) and it
produced lots of seedlings (unsolicited). It will also grow in
subtropical conditions, I believe. Neem is used in many human skin
health products and is also used widely as an insecticide and there are
products for pre-treating seeds to discourage seedling eaters that are
OK'd for organic use, I believe. It is a very special tree.

The tea tree is a malelueca species (or leptospermum) as someone pointed
out, used in Australian Indigenous medicine. A number of different
Australian melaleucas grown in a range of conditions had healing
properties and were used by Indigenous peoples. They tend to grow in
wetland or coastal areas. We haven't had success using it for headlice. 

cheers
flick