| General Description | Hevea brasiliensis is a deciduous tropical tree, that can grow up to 40 m in height and is commonly known as the ‘Rubber tree’ or ‘Para rubber’. This tree is well known and used abroad as it produces latex which can be made into a lot of the rubber used all over the world. This tree has a straight single stem trunk, with no branches up to the canopy. The canopy is multibranched and has a very leafy foliage. |
| ID Characteristic | Hevea brasiliensis has a long trunk with no branches until near the top. There is cream-coloured latex found under the bark. The fruits produced from the tree look like a 3 leaf clover and are 3 lobed. |
| Shape | Upright, straight tree with a dense leafy canopy. Does not change during maturity. |
| Landscape | Hevea brasiliensis is not used so much as a landscape tree, since it can only handle tropical and hotter climates and is only found lower altitude forests with lots of moisture. Hevea brasiliensis is used as a commercial latex-rubber source. There are mass plantings to get as much extracted latex as possible, which is then turned to rubber and used in Asia and Africa. Since the trees lifespan is shortened by tapping the latex from the tree after about 30 years, the tree is now cut down and the wood is used to make furniture and cutlery. |
| Cultivation | Hevea brasiliensis is grown best in well drained acidic soils and has a large pH range of 4-8. This tree is NOT urban tolerant and needs to be in subtropical or tropical moist climates to thrive. |
| Pests | South American leaf blight has ended the cultivation of the tree in South America because the fungi called Microcyclus ulei stops the Hevea brasiliensis from creating the latex which is used commercially. |
| Habitat | The Hevea brasiliensis can most commonly be found in low-altitude moist tropical or subtropical forests. This tree can thrive in more acidic soils (see cultivation), and in very wet conditions (waterlogging). |
| Bark/Stem Description | The bark is smooth and is pale to dark brown sometimes looking blotchy due to latex-tapping. The stem is long and straight and has higher branching. |
| Flower/Leaf Bud Description | This trees flower buds are very small, green oval shaped. |
| Leaf Description | Leaves alternate, each leaf is comprised of 3 obovate leaflets, which are light to dark green they don’t change colour with maturity. |
| Flower Description | The Hevea brasiliensis flowers have no petals, are green to a creamy yellow, they have a very sweet scent, and are very small. They are monoecious. |
| Fruit Description | Fruits are 3 lobed (see figure 4), 2 - 3 cm in length and weighing 2 - 4 g each, they are non-edible and explode when ripe which send the seeds flying up to 15m from the tree canopy. |
| Colour Description | There are a different range of colours of this tree, the foliage is light to dark green and stays this colour through all seasons. The bark can range from a pale to dark brown colour sometimes both. |