Chinese Tallow |
The Chinese tallow tree (Sapium sebiferum), sometimes called chicken or popcorn tree, was introducedto the U.S. from China in Charleston, South Carolina, in the late eighteenth century by the French botanist Francois Michaux, though Ben Franklin frequently gets "credit." The original intent was to develop a soap industry, based on the wax coating of the white seeds.
Tallows are extremely variable genetically. Have you noticed that in late fall some tallows will lose their leaves while other retain them? Some turn red and yellow while others are still green? Some have ripe, white seeds while others don't? This extreme variability allows propagators to select trees with certain characteristics that are deemed desirable (such as amount of wax on the seeds) and, by artificially crossing them or collecting and planting their seeds, expand those characteristics in the orchard.
Even though seed production reached 10,000 pounds per acre, the tallow orchard venture failed because harvest by hand was not cost-effective. The abandoned orchard trees spread quickly into the natural environment and the tallow is now one of the most abundant trees along the Gulf and U.S. south Atlantic coasts. The rapid dispersal was due to the same features which unfortunately endear tallows to the hearts of new home owners in the New Orleans area - tolerance of poor soils and rapid growth. The trees will grow virtually anywhere and may reach 40 feet tall within ten years. They are, however, quite messy, constantly dropping limbs, and short-lived (about 40 years). Tallows are herba non grata in natural places since they grow much more rapidly than our native trees and thus out-compete and rapidly replace them.
Hurricane Katrina left the Gulf Coast’s forests riddled with fallen trees. The newly opened canopy allows sunlight to reach the ground in places where it has not for years. Opportunistic tallows are popping up everywhere, impossible to control.
November, however, is a period of truce between tallows and some naturalists due to their lovely yellow, red, and purple leaves mixed with the brilliant white seeds that resemble popcorn and provide low preference food for birds.
Nevertheless, the leaves soon fall, tallows lose their short-lived beauty, and the battle wages on.
Tallows are very difficult to eliminate due widespread seeds, rapid growth, and sprouting of shoots from stumps. As a wise old cajun once said, "You don't kill tallows, you just make them mad!"
Delta Journal Article
Chinese tallow, Delta Journal, Times-Picayune, November 4, 2007, C-11
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