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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Chinese Tallow Tree
Triadica sebifera
Chinese Tallow Tree coats its seeds in a white wax that renders into candle and soap tallow, a lard substitute, and a kernel oil once used for varnish and lamp fuel. It grows fast, coppices back readily for fuel and biomass, and its seed feeds dozens of bird species through the winter while its flowers draw honeybees. The sap is poisonous, and the seed and leaves are toxic to cattle, though goats and sheep browse it with less harm. It spreads readily by bird-carried seed and by root suckers, and several states restrict planting it as a result.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 8–10
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Well-Drained · Moist · Wet
Vertical layer
Sub-Canopy- Soil pH
- 3.9–8
- Plant type
- Deciduous Tree
- Mature height
- 30–40 ft
- Mature spread
- 15–20 ft
- Plant spacing
- 12–60 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- Both
Keep exploring
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Moringa stenopetala
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Allegheny Chinquapin
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Allegheny Serviceberry
Amelanchier laevis
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American Hornbeam
Carpinus caroliniana
American Hornbeam is a small, iron-hard-wooded understory tree native to shaded, permanently moist stream margins across the eastern half of…
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Ashe Juniper
Juniperus ashei
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Annona x atemoya
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The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
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