The capsule walls fall away and release three globose seeds, about 12 mm in diameter and weighing about 0.15 g,[11] with a white, tallow-containing covering.

In North America, the flowers typically mature from April to June and the fruit ripens from September to October.

Triadica sebifera is native to China, probably originally in the Zhejiang area, and it was described in the Tang pharmacopoeia Xinxiu bencao.

Cultivation of the tree may have begun in the 7th century during the Tang dynasty in the Yangtze Delta region, and from there it spread westward and southward.

[13] The tree was said to have been introduced to the US by Benjamin Franklin, who mentioned having obtained some seeds in a letter dated October 1772,[14] but it may have actually been introduced to South Carolina, Georgia and Florida in early 1773 by John Bradby Blake who had access to the seeds earlier in late 1770 or early 1771.

[12] The tree has become naturalized from North Carolina southward along the Atlantic seaboard and the entire Gulf Coast, where it grows profusely along ditchbanks and dikes.

It grows especially well in open fields and abandoned farmland coastal prairie regions featuring disturbed ground—such as abandoned farmland, spoil banks, roadsides, and storm-damaged forests—and along the edges of the Western Gulf coastal grasslands biome, sometimes forming monocultures.

It is especially noteworthy if grown in areas that have strong seasonal temperature ranges with the leaves becoming a multitude of colours rivaling maples in the autumn.

Its introduced status in North America along with the harm it causes to ecosystems makes the tree considered an invasive species there.

Tallow trees present a danger of expansion that can hurt local ecosystems by out-competing native vegetation and creating a monoculture.

[17] They can spread by root sprouts and cuttings and are quick to invade after a disturbance occurs in an area, due to the clearing out of land.

[13] A single tallow tree can produce nearly 100,000 viable seeds annually that can remain in the soil for several years before sprouting.

In those areas, the resulting prospect of losing the Chinese tallow as a honey source has caused concern in beekeepers.