September 2022

The Rubber tree is native to South American rain forests, and it is typically found in tropical regions close to the equator. Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela are all countries in South America where rubber trees can be found. The conspicuous trifoliate leaves, separate male and female flowers generated at the same inflorescence, and a trilocular capsule fruit pod that contains three seeds, which contain latex in nearly every part of the tree, are characteristics of rubber trees. Five years after planting, they start to flower, although they rarely open at the same time, which promotes cross-pollination. Rubber tree latex has various advantages that make it a valuable raw resource for numerous goods. The inner bark of a rubber tree contains a cluster of particular cells known as laticifers, or latex vessels, which are harvested to produce latex by slicing through the outer layers of the bark structure. Multiple unique soft and hard layers combine to generate the bark structure. The laticifers that finally give rise to rows of cells as concentric cylinders of parenchyma tissues and tube cells are known as soft bark. Within this species, the bark thickness varies, and the surface colour ranges from reddish purple to dark purple and from pale brown to brown. Young rubber trees occasionally even have a brown-green striped bark. The size of the seeds varies, but they typically exhibit dark brown or grey-brown mottling. Additionally, this species produces thick, green fruit capsules with three lobes and seeds.