Description
Aleurites fordii (scientific name: Vernicia fordii (Hemsl.) Airy Shaw) is a deciduous tree of the Euphorbiaceae family, up to 10 meters in height; the bark is gray and nearly smooth; the branches are sturdy, glabrous, and the leaves are oval and tipped. Short tip, truncated at the base to a shallow heart-shaped, gray-green below, petiole nearly as long as the leaf, glabrous, and the flower is monoecious, the first leaf or the leaf is open at the same time; the petals are white with light red veins, and the ovary is dense It is pilose, drupe nearly globose, smooth pericarp; seed coat is woody. Flower in March-April, fruit in August-September.
Distributed in China's Shaanxi, Henan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Hainan, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan and other provinces. Vietnam also has distribution. It is usually cultivated in hills and mountains below 1,000 meters above sea level.
This species is an important industrial oil plant; tung oil is a foreign trade commodity; in addition, its peel can be used to make activated carbon or extract potassium carbonate
