Species
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Triadica sebifera (L.) Small

Chinese tallow, Chinese tallow, Chinese tallowtree, Chinese tallowtree

Climate known 65 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Triadica sebifera is a tree native to eastern Asia. It is commonly called Chinese tallow, Chinese tallowtree, Florida aspen, chicken tree, gray popcorn tree, or candleberry tree.

Text from Wikipedia, “Triadica sebifera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Triadica

Triadica is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1790. It is native to eastern, southeastern, and southern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Triadica”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
(L.) Small
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central +4
Wild records
349 in range· 105 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1661mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 273 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1661 mm a year, wettest June at 273 mm, driest December at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Carumbium sebiferum (L.) Kurz; Croton macrocarpus Rchb.; Croton macrocarpus Rchb. ex Müll.Arg.; Croton sebifer L.; Croton sebiferum L. and 21 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1254 mm of 1661 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1661 mm a year, wettest June at 273 mm, driest December at 37 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1661 mm a year at the habitat, 1254 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 273 mm, driest December at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1039 mm to 2935 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -2.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -2.3 °C, the absolute minimum -9.9 °C, about 11 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -1.5 °C to 13.7 °C), warmest day 30.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 13 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1661 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 290 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–35RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 290 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C13 / 7–2015 / 9–2118 / 13–2422 / 18–2626 / 22–2828 / 25–3030 / 27–3230 / 27–3228 / 24–2924 / 19–2819 / 15–2515 / 9–22
Night °C5 / -2–147 / -0–1410 / 3–1714 / 9–2019 / 14–2322 / 18–2524 / 21–2624 / 21–2621 / 17–2517 / 12–2211 / 6–196 / 1–15
Rain mm47 / 16–11275 / 19–177110 / 37–204148 / 57–231213 / 94–305273 / 150–413235 / 158–372207 / 140–399178 / 85–44383 / 42–27655 / 24–18137 / 14–113
DLI17 / 14–2320 / 15–2625 / 19–3229 / 23–3531 / 27–3532 / 28–3435 / 30–3832 / 30–3528 / 23–3124 / 17–3018 / 15–2517 / 13–22
RH %61 / 56–6562 / 56–6663 / 57–6763 / 57–6864 / 59–6865 / 61–6965 / 62–6865 / 62–6864 / 60–6762 / 58–6561 / 57–6560 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 290 grid cells holding the 341 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1303:5863 (24.825, 113.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 290 distinct grid cells holding the 341 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1303:5863 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 25.00_113.125, lapse-corrected -237 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 290 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Vietnam· introduced: East Himalaya, India, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Oklahoma, California, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Cuba, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.825, 121.088 · in the densest population, 115 records (33% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 349 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 105 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 145 km away. 1510 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 349 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Triadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebiferaTriadica sebifera

Photographs: (c) Sam Kieschnick, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Triadica sebifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Genetic variation in anti‐herbivore chemical defences in an invasive plant
Yi Wang, Evan Siemann, Gregory S. Wheeler, Lin Zhu (2012) · Journal of Ecology
Improving species distribution models for invasive non‐native species with biologically informed pseudo‐absence selection
Daniel S. Chapman, Oliver L. Pescott, Helen E. Roy, Rob Tanner (2019) · Journal of Biogeography
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN FIRE AND INVASIVE PLANTS IN TEMPERATE GRASSLANDS OF NORTH AMERICA
James B. Grace, Melinda D. Smith, Susan L. Grace, Scott L. Collins (2001)
Pyrolysis of energy cane bagasse and invasive Chinese tallow tree ( Triadica sebifera L .) biomass in an inductively heated reactor
Charles Henkel, Pranjali Muley, Kamran Abdollahi, Cosmin Mărculescu (2015) · Energy Conversion and Management
Root flavonoids are related to enhanced AMF colonization of an invasive tree
Yingchun Pei, Evan Siemann, Baoliang Tian, Jianqing Ding (2020) · AoB Plants
Herbivore-specific induction of indirect and direct defensive responses in leaves and roots
Li Xiao, Juli Carrillo, Evan Siemann, Jianqing Ding (2019) · AoB Plants
Mechanisms of Chinese tallow (Triadica sebifera) invasion and their management implications – A review
Lauren S. Pile, G. Geoff Wang, Jeremy P. Stovall, Evan Siemann (2017) · Forest Ecology and Management

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.