Plant · P-725

Tung Tree

Vernicia fordii

Tung tree is grown almost entirely for one product: an oil pressed from its seed that dries fast and hard, going into varnishes, paints and other weatherproof finishes rather than into food. Every part of the tree is toxic, and a single seed can be fatal if eaten, so it needs siting well away from children, poultry and livestock and any ground where fallen fruit gets picked up. It flowers on bare branches before the leaves emerge, wants a long hot rainy summer paired with several hundred hours of winter chill, and has little tolerance for frost. It spreads readily by seed and by root suckers, enough that it has naturalized along the Gulf Coast after early-1900s oil plantations, so a cut stump needs treating or it resprouts.