This was an understory tree, very large, broad leaves, growing wild along the side of a dirt road. Fruit was a little smaller than a tennis ball, and has two large seeds, similar to some wild varieties of persimmon, but the leaves were too large and shaped wrong to be any kind of persimmon I know of. Smelled kind of like a pear, but a real weak scent.

Brown turkey fig ??

Looks like Royal Paulownia

Fruit was much bigger than pics I find for Paulownia Tomentosa, and the seeds are different. Looked real close at first glance, though...

Edit: The fruit also wasn't tightly clustered or as numerous as the pics of the Paulownia...

Yeah, this.

Eh, never mind. Leaves are wrong.

I've got Brown Turkey and Celeste figs in my orchard...definitely NOT a fig of any sort.

Tung Oil tree

Ding ding ding.....winner winner catfish dinner! Nice work bward

Tung Oil tree! That makes sense, because about a hundred years ago, there was a pretty vibrant tung oil industry down near Florala (these trees were about 1/2 mile out of Florala).
Thanks!

Tung oil trees are all over the place down here. I use to know where there were a couple of tung oil cookers, but that market is long gone now.

Yep. Aleurites fordii The heart shaped leaves are a dead giveaway Tung is heart in Chinese. Fruit is poisonous as all get out.

Interesting stuff...did a little further digging and apparently the Tung Oil Tree is death with pretty leaves. Every damn thing is poisonous about it.

Good to know. My kids brought some home the other day saying they were figs. I didn't know what they were but knew they weren't figs. They know better than to eat stuff without asking me but I will show them this to make sure they leave them alone.

Yes, deadly even if it is tasty.
My little sister and I ate 5 or 6 of these each when I was about 5 years old. A trip to the ER, Stomach pumped out, suppository up the butt twice a day for a week made for a valuable learning experience.

That explains Tung Oil Road in Geneva State Forest.
I always it was named for a Chinese oil company.

That is exactly right Out Back.

I went through this about 10 years ago. Brought home the fruit thinking it may be edible. Took me a while to figure out what it was. I'm just glad I didn't take a bite.

Tram Road, in what used to be Jackson's Entry, is the other reason I said it made sense...Heavily loaded wagons of Tung seed, called trams, travelled the road from the Tung groves to the press mill.