What Plant Does Rubber Come From

Although there are something like 200 plants in the world that produce latex over 99 percent of the world s natural rubber is made from the latex that comes from a tree species called hevea brasiliensis widely known as the rubber tree.

What plant does rubber come from. It is the most economically important member of the genus hevea because the milky latex extracted from the tree is the primary source of natural rubber. Natural rubber is made from the milky white substance called latex that is produced by some trees and plants instead of sap. The latex is a sticky milky colloid drawn off by making incisions in the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels in a process called tapping. This tree is said to have come from the amazon rainforest in brazil originally.

You may find this plant labeled either as a rubber tree or rubber fig. Currently rubber is harvested in the form of the latex from the rubber tree or others like oak and pine. Rubber tree hevea brasiliensis south american tropical tree of the spurge family euphorbiaceae. The rubber aspect of its name comes from the rubber white sap that oozes out of the glossy leaves and woody stems if they re scratched or cut.

Cultivated on plantations in the tropics and subtropics especially in southeast asia and western africa it replaced the rubber plant in the early 20th century as the chief source of natural rubber. Over 400 different plants and trees produce latex but the latex used in natural rubber comes from the rubber tree plant hevea brasiliesis. Hevea brasiliensis the pará rubber tree sharinga tree seringueira or most commonly the rubber tree or rubber plant is a flowering plant belonging to the spurge family euphorbiaceae.