Vernicia fordii, usually known as the tung tree, is a species of Vernicia in the spurge family native to southern China, Burma, and northern Vietnam.
It is a small to medium-sized deciduous tree. The bark is smooth and thin, and bleeds latex if cut. The flowers have five pale pink to purple petals with streaks of darker red or purple in the throat; it is monoecious with individual flowers either male or female, but produced together in the inflorescences.
The fruit is a hard, woody pear-shaped berry, containing four or five large, oily seeds producing tung-oil, a wood oil that was used for the production of paints and varnishes.
Stamps & Postal Products
1964 Definitive Series – 9d Tung
