Chinese tallow (Tridica sebifera) is a medum-sized tree with distincive heart-shaped leaves that turn bright red in the Autumn, hence its attractiveness as an ornamental landscape plant. Seeds are borne in conspicuous clusters that look like masses of popcorn kernels, giving rise to the other common name for this plant - popcorn tree. Seeds are covered with vegetable oil (tallow), giving them a waxy coated appearance.

Chinese tallow ranks as a troublesome weed in warm parts of the world, though its full impact and importance is not well known. In the U.S., it is rapidly invading disturbed and natural areas in the Southeast from South Carolina to Texas, including 38 of Florida's 67 counties. There is significant concern that this tree is displaying a pattern of spread similar to the explosive growth of Melaleuca in South Florida over the past four decades. Often established on disturbed upland sites as a result of human cultivation, Chinese tallow is readily carried into surrounding natural areas by birds that eat the copious seeds. This pest thrives in wetland transitional areas, bottomland hardwood forests and edges, around ponds, and even out into relatively saline coastal marshes.

As might be expected from the name, Chinese tallow is a native of China (Eastern China, to be specific), where it has been in cultivation for over a thousand years as a seed-oil crop.

For more information see the Chinese Tallow case file on the BRD Invasive Species Science program's web site that lists USGS contact people, fact sheets, and citations on the species.