ABSTRACT
The hazards of developing a new crop plant are many. The chemical nature of the new products and the technologies required for their production and utilization are often imperfectly understood. Perennial crop plants have played a minor role in the US agricultural economy, their main contribution being in non-staple food crops such as fruits and nuts. Minor exceptions have been the naval stores industry based upon the long-leafed southern yellow pine, and tung oil from the tung tree, Aleurites. The Chinese tallow tree is poised to become a useful crop in the United States in part because it is already well along the path to development. The Chinese tallow tree is an introduced subtropical euphorb which has became naturalized in the lowlands of the Gulf and the South Atlantic coasts and in southern California. The seed is comprised of an outer coating of hard, saturated fat, embedded in a fibrous matrix, separated from an oily seed kernel by hard impermeable shell.
