Money does grow on trees, it turns out- and now is being harvested in the form of diesel dollars. As a result, the seeds in the fruit pods of the jatropha tree were some of the big news at this year's National Biodiesel Conference, held recently in San Francisco.

The seeds of the jatropha, which is native to India and Africa, p roduce clean-burning diesel fuel, and in a manner that, unlike corn and other sources of biofuel, doesn't compete with food crops for good land. Brothers Paul and Mike Dalton have found the tree grows like a weed, even in poor soil and have named their Florida-based company My Dream Fuel. University of Florida researcher, Roy Beckford, along with the Daltons, presented at the National Biodiesel Conference and Expo. Beckford has been studying this diesel variant and says "this is a superior biodiesel."

The new fuel is quickly gaining notoriety and was successfully tested on an Air New Zealand flight, in December, using a 50-50 blend of the jatropha and an aviation fuel blend. India hopes the oil from the tree's seeds will actually help to produce 20 percent of its diesel fuel by 2011, and other countries, including Brazil, Kenya, Australia and China have jumped on board, as well.

The Daltons have planted 900,000 trees near Fort Meyers and note that the trees have thrived in the Florida climate and could likely yield eight times as much oil as have been produced in India and Africa. The brothers believe they can get up to 1,600 gallons of the fuel per acre each year, which compares to 200 gallons for stock that grows in the wild.

--Sue Mead