Chinese tallow Sapium sebiferum
University of Florida, IFAS, Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants	St. Johns River Water Management District

Chinese tallow trees being bulldozed, piled up and burned in Orlando.	Chinese tallo on Lake Jackson	Chinese tallo on Lake Jackson	Chinese tallo, waist high, growing out of a crack in the sidewalk at the Jacksonville Airport

Chinese tallow (Sapium sebiferum) might be called the "north Florida melaleuca": like melaleuca, it's a tree that grows and spreads rapidly, is difficult to kill, and tends to take over large areas by out-competing native plants. Chinese tallow is spreading rampantly in large natural areas, including Paynes Prairie State Preserve near Gainesville, state-owned protected lands along the St. Johns River, and a park in Volusia County. It can thrive in well-drained uplands as well as in bottomlands, shores of waterbodies, and even on floating islands. It also is referred to as "Florida aspen" and "popcorn-tree", and continues to be sold in plant nurseries.


The plant was purposely introduced into the southeastern US as early as the 1700s. It comes from China where it has been cultivated for about 1,500 years as a seed-oil crop. In the US, it is primarily associated with ornamental landscapes. Chinese tallow has become naturalized in the southern coastal plain from South Carolina south to Florida and west to Texas.


How To Identify Chinese Tallow


Chinese tallow is a popular ornamental because of its fast growth and attractive foliage which becomes yellow to red in the fall and is resistant to pests. It is a small to medium-sized tree that grows to about 20 feet tall. Its leaves are simple, alternate, deciduous and as broad or broader than long. Leaf blades are pinnately-veined and broadly ovate, with broadly rounded bases. Apices are abruptly acuminate and margins are entire. Petioles are slender, mostly about 1-2 inches long. The inflorescences are very attractive to bees and other insects; they are relatively long branches (2-8 inches long) bearing small, stalked white flowers. The fruit is three-lobed with one seed in each lobe. Seeds are covered with vegetable tallow, a white waxy coating.


New growth on Chinese tallow begins as early as February and flowering lasts from March through May. Fruit ripens from August to November. The tree is deciduous, losing leaves during the autumn. Young trees establish a taproot system and are able to withstand extended periods of drought. Its primary vectors are birds (pileated woodpeckers have been observed eating the seed) and moving waters (tests show viability even after several weeks of floating in water).


For general information about Chinese tallow, download this UF/IFAS-EDIS publication, Natural Area Weeds: Chinese tallow Sapium sebiferum, by K.A. Langeland.

For more information and pictures about Chinese tallow tree, as contained in the Langeland/Burks book, Identification & Biology of Non-Native Plants in Florida's Natural Areas, download this Acrobat .PDF file.


Here is information about "Current Control Technologies" for Chinese tallow.


The Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants and the St. Johns River Water Management District are jointly surveying the spread of, as well as determining the cost of eliminating, Chinese tallow from District-owned lands, where it is quickly invading some of Florida's few remaining virgin forests and wetlands. District workers have already begun to kill individual trees with herbicides. Here is more information about this joint project.
Here are published items from the APIRS database about Sapium sebiferum:


Bruce, K.A.; G.N. Cameron; P.A. Harcombe. Initiation of a new woodland type on the Texas coastal prairie by the Chinese tallow tree (Sapium sebiferum). Bull. Torrey Bot. Club 122(3):215-225. 1995.


Burks, K.C. Adverse effects of invasive exotic plants on Florida's rare native flora. Resource Manage. Notes 8(1):15-16. 1996.


Jubinsky, G. Chinese Tallow (Sapium sebiferum). Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Aquatic Plant Management. Pub. No. TSS-93-03. 12 pp. 1995.


Schmitz, D.C.; T.C. Brown, eds. An assessment of invasive non-indigenous species in Florida's public lands. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Technical Report No. TSS-94-100. 303 pp. 1994.


The UF/IFAS Assessment lists plants according to their invasive status in Florida. View the list here.

Click here to see the herbarium specimen image of the UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA HERBARIUM DIGITAL IMAGING PROJECTS.

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