WAR AGAINST NATURE: THE CHINESE TALLOWS

     As mentioned before, two of the trees in our yard are Chinese tallows.  AKA Triadica sebifera (L), aka Florida aspen, chicken tree, gray popcorn tree, and candleberry tree.  Chinese tallow is an ornamental tree with colorful autumn foliage that can survive full sunlight and shade, flooding, drought, and in some cases fire.  It was allegedly introduced by Benjamin Franklin into the United States, and cultivated in South Carolina in 1772, as an ornamental tree. The first documented evidence of intentional Chinese tallow introduction into the U.S. occurred in 1772 by Benjamin Franklin, who forwarded seeds from “Cochin China” (now South Vietnam) to Mr. Noble Wimberly Jones, a gentleman farmer and fellow horticultural enthusiast residing in Darien, Georgia. In a letter addressed to Jones dated October 7, 1772, Franklin writes, “… I send also a few seeds of the Chinese Tallow Tree, which will I believe grow & thrive with you. Tis a most useful plant.” (Bell, 1966). Franklin valued the Chinese tallow tree for its utility, anticipating that the aril-rich mantle would be extracted and fashioned into candles by enterprising Georgians. The first American botanical reference to Chinese tallow was documented by Michaux (1803), who stated that it had been “cultivated in Charleston and Savannah, but was then spreading spontaneously into the coastal forests.” In 1826, Stephen Elliot protested that the Chinese tallow tree “bears fruit in great abundance, but though they contain much oil, no use is yet made of them.” (Bell, 1966). In 1906, the US Department of Agriculture, not having learned its lesson, thought that it would be a swell idea to spread them over the South, starting in Louisiana and Texas, as the waxy seed coverings were supposed to be a great source of the chemicals needed to make soap and machine oils.

     Gee thanks, Ben.  Double for you, USDA. Because kudzu, love bugs, and fire ants aren’t enough non-native pests that we in the South have to deal with, we have the Chinese tallow, a 50 foot tall weed that will not die.  Since 1998, it has been illegal to sell or propagate this pest in the state of Florida.    Since 1993 it has been said that “Chinese tallow may one day rival melaleuca in ecological and economic impact and distribution in Florida. Indeed, the Nature Conservancy has designated Chinese tallow as one of the “ten worst alien plant invaders” in the United States (Flack and Furlow, 1996), and the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has assigned Chinese tallow the dubious distinction of being one of “100 of the world’s worst invasive alien species”.

     Why is it so bad?  It won’t die!  The state of Louisiana tried, and found that:

• As tree diameter increases, thickening of the bark protects the cambium layer from damage to

secondary growth. Above some minimum size, Chinese tallow appears resistant to top-kill

(i.e., death of the above-ground portion of the plant) by fire.

• For smaller trees or trees subjected to extremely hot fires, response to top-kill is vigorous

resprouting with the potential to produce up to 2 meters of regrowth within a single growing

season. Consequently, tallow recovers from fire very quickly.

• As a consequence of damage by fire or mechanical cutting, Chinese tallow responds by root

sprouting at some distance from the original plant, resulting in clonal spread for distances

typically greater than 5 meters.

• Only the hottest fires are expected to ignite Chinese tallow, and trees typically neither carry

nor transmit fire through the canopy, unlike many trees and shrubs.

• Chinese tallow stands are characterized by “low flammability” because it competitively

excludes pyrogenic species that drive fire. Grace (1998) states, “it is common to watch a

prescribed fire burn right up to the edge of a tallow stand and simply go out because of a lack

of fuel.” As a consequence, fire-regulated prairie communities invaded by tallow shift from

being fire-regulated to tallow-regulated.

     I think I have seen something like this: John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982)*: (warning, NSFW, has a dirty word.  And some scary stuff, too).

     *Attention Deficit Disorder moment: the actor that played the role of Childs is Keith David.  He was the "Angry Black Man" persona that Samuel L Jackson later make famous for himself.  He has been everywhere (The Thing, Platoon, They Live, Roadhouse, Barbershop.  You have heard his lines before:
> "Aww, lookie here. Looks like somebody threw away a perfectly good white boy!" (Men At Work)
> "Is it the frank or the beans?" (There's Something About Mary)