Chinese Tallow

What is this big tree root growing alongside my house? 

It is a scourge, a virus, and a very beautiful tree.  The Chinese Tallow, Chicken Tree, or Popcorn Tree is as troublesome as it is appealing.  It is an import from China… – hmm, this is beginning to sound familiar.   This tree was brought to America from China, the Chinese use it to make candles from the tallow that can be gotten from the seeds.  It has wonderful fall colors and the seeds look like popcorn on the tree when they open.

The problem with these trees is that they drop thousands of seeds that get all over the place and sprout new tallow trees.  The tree is very hard and difficult to get rid of.  The roots tend to extend out great distances just below the surface of the ground and will start new trees.  If you cut down the tree, the buried roots will start to sprout new trees in a variety of places.  Left unattended these trees can destroy yards, foundations, sewers, sidewalks and roads.

I discovered the roots as I was cleaning my backyard.  Knowing that having large roots growing next to your home is a bad thing, I started digging them up.  It is quite a job, many of these roots led to the pretty Tallow tree.

After doing a little research into the tree I discovered the information about using the tallow from the seeds to make candles.  This sounded kind of fun, so I thought I would give it a try.  I gathered a few hundred seeds and set a pot of them to boil to try to separate the tallow.  It was a bit trickier than I expected, the tallow is not very cooperative and does not melt as well as  wax.  After scraping and melting enough tallow, I eventually had a small bit – it wasn’t enough to make a decent candle, but I could see why people don’t use tallow candles much these days.  From what I have learned about tallow candles, they give off a black soot, aren’t entirely pleasant smelling and every so often you have to scoop up some of the fallen tallow to reshape them.  Maybe I’ll try this again some day when I have more time and a more efficient approach to harvesting the tallow.