The elegant flowers in the image below are from a Gulf Hills Garden Club member, who is fortunate enough to have a small grove of graceful Tung Oil Trees growing in their garden.
The Tung Oil Tree(Aleurites fordii) is also known as the Chinawood Tree and this is the tree that tung oil comes from.
The large (poisonous) seeds of this tree are pressed for the oil, which is then used in the manufacture of lacquers, varnishes, paints, linoleum, oilcloth, resins, artificial leather, felt-base floor coverings, and greases, brake-linings and in cleaning and polishing compounds.
It is said that during World War II, the Chinese used tung oil for motor fuel.
This tree has a very long history, having been cultivated in China for at least 2,000 years and more recently in modern times traveling all the way to the Gulf Coast of the United States.
Tung oil has been a major industry here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast as can be testified to by an article about tung oil on the website of the Biloxi Historical Society.
For more information on tung oil take a look at the Tung Oil entry at WikipediA
Our Tung Oil Flower images were taken back in April of 2014.
Pine and Ridge looks wonderful! Thank you Danny!
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