Petioles are slender, mostly about 1-2 inches long. The fruit is three-lobed with one seed in each lobe. Seeds are covered with vegetable tallow, a white waxy coating. May. Fruit ripens from August to November. The tree is deciduous, losing leaves during the autumn.
Young trees establish a taproot system and are able to withstand extended periods of drought.
The Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants and the St. Johns River Water Management District are jointly surveying the spread of, as well as determining the cost of eliminating, Chinese tallow from District-owned lands, where it is quickly invading some of Florida's few remaining virgin forests and wetlands. District workers have already begun to kill individual trees with herbicides . Here is more information about this joint project. Burks, K.C. Adverse effects of invasive exotic plants on Florida's rare native flora. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Bureau of Aquatic Plant Management.