Effect of annealing on the microstructure and mechanical anisotropy of Mg/Al composite plate

•The rolled Mg/Al composite plate exhibits obvious anisotropy, with severe grain distortion and more local shear bands on the RD-ND surface.•Two kinds of intermetallic compounds are formed at the interface of Mg/Al composite plate, which are Mg17Al12 and Mg2Al3, respectively.•After annealing at 300 °C/30 min, the dislocation density of the composite plate decreases obviously and the texture strength is weakened.•After annealing treatment, the anisotropy of the composite plate is obviously weakened and the elongation is obviously increased.