Tallowtree

Tallowtree

Tallowtree or popcorn tree [Triadica sebifera (L.) Small, formerly Sapium sebiferum (L.) Roxb.] is a shade-tolerant tree that grows to 50 feet tall. It has light green heart-shaped leaves that turn scarlet in the fall, long drooping flowers in spring, and bundles of white, waxy, popcornlike seeds that remain attached to the tree in fall and winter. The abundant seeds are spread by birds and on water. Tallowtree is a prolific root sprouter and forms monospecific stands (Bruce and others 1997). It was introduced from China to the U.S. gulf coast in the early 1900s, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture encouraged its use as a seed oil crop from 1920 to 1940. Tallowtree is still being sold and planted and is thought to be the most rapidly invading tree species in the region. Tallowtree seedlings are shade tolerant and yet grow rapidly in full sun (Jones and McLeod 1990). Its waxy seeds were traditionally used to make candles, and it has current value as a honey plant for beekeeping and limited pulpwood use. It forms dense stands, and because it tolerates flooding, tallowtree replaces bottomland hardwood reproduction and understory plants in wetland forests throughout the Coastal Plain (Jones and Sharitz 1989). It is also spreading into upland forests from widespread ornamental plantings. It occurs in all the Southern States except Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Virginia, and there are severe infestations in coastal areas of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.