Hevea brasiliensis

The rubber tree grows in warm lands.

It comes from the Amazon rainforest. This tree is very tall. It has brown bark.

Inside the bark is a white juice. This juice is called latex. People cut the bark to get it.

We use the white juice to make rubber. This is how we get natural rubber. It can take many years to get the first harvest.

The tree needs lots of rain. It cannot live where it is very cold.

The rubber tree is a special plant. It comes from the Amazon basin. Most people call it the rubber tree.

This tree is very tall in the wild. It has brown bark. Inside the bark are tiny tubes. These tubes hold a milky liquid called latex.

People collect this latex to make natural rubber. This way is called rubber tapping. Workers make small cuts in the bark. They do not hurt the tree's growth. The white latex flows out into small buckets.

It takes seven to ten years for the first harvest. Trees in farms are often smaller. This is because tapping them slows their growth. Most trees are cut down after 30 years. This is when they make less latex.

Rubber trees need a warm place to live. They need lots of rain every year. Frost can be bad for them. One frost can make the rubber break. Today, many trees grow in Asia.

The rubber tree, or Hevea brasiliensis, is a very important plant. It belongs to the spurge family. Most people simply call it the rubber tree.

This tree is the main source of natural rubber. This milky liquid is called latex. Because it is so useful, it is a very important part of the world economy.

Inside the bark, the tree has special vessels. These vessels hold the white or yellow latex. They spiral up the trunk in a right-handed helix. This spiral shape stays at a 30-degree angle from the horizontal. To collect the liquid, workers perform a task called rubber tapping. They make small cuts in the bark. These cuts go just deep enough to reach the vessels. The latex then flows into small buckets.

Long ago, these trees grew only in the Amazon basin. Native people used the latex for many things. The Olmec people used similar trees 3,600 years ago. They even made balls for a special game.

Later, a rubber boom happened from 1840 to 1913. This made cities like Manaus in Brazil and Iquitos in Peru very rich.

In 1875, a man named Henry Wickham took 70,000 seeds from Brazil. He sent them to the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Some of these seeds grew into seedlings. In 1876, about 2,000 seedlings went to Ceylon. Other seedlings went to Singapore.

This helped rubber trees grow in many other places. By 1898, large plantations were in Malaya.

Today, most rubber comes from South and Southeast Asia. Countries like Thailand, Indonesia, and Malaysia lead the way.

The trees need a warm climate with lots of rain. They cannot survive a frost. A single frost can make the rubber brittle. This is because the frost can damage the refined rubber. Many trees in Asia are now at risk from a leaf disease. This disease is called South American leaf blight.

Hevea brasiliensis is a flowering plant in the spurge family, known as Euphorbiaceae. It is most commonly called the rubber tree or rubber plant. This species is the most economically important member of the genus Hevea. This importance comes from its milky latex, which is the primary source of natural rubber.

While it is originally native to the Amazon basin, it is now grown in many tropical regions worldwide. It is a tall, deciduous tree that can reach great heights in the wild.

The tree produces latex through a specific biological mechanism. White or yellow latex is stored in specialized latex vessels located in the bark. These vessels are positioned mostly outside the phloem, which is the tissue that transports nutrients. The vessels form a right-handed helix that spirals up the trunk. This spiral maintains an angle of about 30 degrees from the horizontal. These vessels can grow as high as 30 meters up the tree.

To harvest this resource, workers perform a process called rubber tapping. Harvesters make precise incisions across the latex vessels in the bark. These cuts must be deep enough to reach the vessels but shallow enough to avoid harming the tree's growth. Once the vessels are cut, the latex flows out and is collected in small buckets.

This process requires patience, as it takes between seven and ten years for a tree to deliver its first harvest. In commercial plantations, trees are often smaller than wild trees. This is because tapping the latex restricts their growth, and trees are usually cut down after 30 years. This happens because latex production declines as the trees age.

The history of the rubber tree is marked by periods of great wealth and sudden change. Native people in the Amazon used the tree long before modern industry arrived. In Mesoamerica, the Olmec people used similar latex-producing trees as early as 3,600 years ago. They used the rubber to create balls for their traditional ballgames. Later, the discovery of the vulcanization procedure in 1839 triggered a massive rubber boom. Between 1840 and 1913, this boom enriched South American cities like Belém, Santarém, Manaus, and Iquitos.

Global rubber production changed forever due to a major smuggling operation. In 1873, early attempts to grow the tree outside Brazil failed. However, in 1875, Henry Wickham smuggled approximately 70,000 seeds to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. About 4% of these seeds germinated successfully. In 1876, about 2,000 seedlings were sent to Ceylon, while 22 seedlings were sent to Singapore. This allowed rubber to be extensively grown in British colonies. By 1898, large plantations were established in Malaya, using imported Chinese field workers.

Today, the center of rubber production has shifted to South and Southeast Asia. In 2011, the top producing countries included Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, and Vietnam.

These trees require a tropical or subtropical climate with at least 2,000 mm of annual rainfall. They cannot tolerate frost, as a single frost can be disastrous. Frost can cause the refined rubber to become brittle and break. Production in the Amazon declined in the early 20th century due to a disease called South American leaf blight. This blight is caused by the fungus Pseudocercospora ulei. Because many Asian clones are susceptible to this fungus, experts worry about future industry stability.

The tree also uses complex chemistry to defend itself. Hevea brasiliensis produces cyanogenic glycosides, or CGs, which are concentrated in the seeds.

These chemicals act as a defense against many attackers. The tree can recycle the carbon and nitrogen from these compounds for growth or latex production. Interestingly, the tree can suffer more from the leaf blight if it produces more of these defensive chemicals. This is because the cyanide may stop the tree from producing other necessary defenses. This complex relationship between the plant and its environment shapes how the rubber tree survives and grows.