Triadica sebifera

The Chinese triadica is in the euphorbia or Euphorbiaceae family and is native to eastern China and introduced to Japan in the Edo period. It is also now common in the southeastern United States, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, India, Martinique, Sudan, and southern France. The waxy coating of the seeds historically has been used for making candles and soap.

It has been mistaken for a poplar such as trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides), even having a semi-flat petiole, although details of the flowers, fruit and other features are quite distinct from the poplars.

• Leaves are deciduous, simple, alternate, ovate, smooth edges, sometimes with an extended tail (like Ficus religiosa), colour bright green, turning yellows, oranges, purples and reds in the fall.
• Species is monoecious; flowers are greenish-yellow or white in clusters in a terminal spike-like inflorescence up to 20 cm long; each pistillate (female) flower is solitary and has a three-lobed ovary, three styles, and no petals, located on short branches at the base of the spike; staminate (male) flowers are in clusters at the upper nodes of the inflorescence.
• Fruits are 3-lobed, 3-valved capsules, changing colour from green to a brown-black as they mature; as the capsules open, they release round seeds with a white covering containing tallow.