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Castilla elastica
Also called Castilla Rubber, Rubber Tree, Panama Rubber Tree
In Singapore: Panama Rubber Tree, Castilla Rubber Tree, Mexican Rubber Tree, Uletree (Naturalised in Singapore)
Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a large tropical tree grown mainly for its latex. It needs warm, humid, frost-free conditions and plenty of space, and is rarely grown as a houseplant.
Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It was the principal source of latex among the Mesoamerican peoples in pre-Columbian times. The latex gathered from Castilla elastica was converted into usable rubber by mixing the latex with the juice of the morning glory species Ipomoea alba which, conveniently, is typically found in the wild as a vine climbing Castilla elastica. The rubber produced by this method found several uses, including most notably, the manufacture of balls for the Mesoamerican ballgame ōllamaliztli.
The Nahuatl word for rubber was ulli / olli, from which their word for the ballgame derived), and also their name for the ancient people they associated with the origin of the ballgame, the Olmecs (olmeca: "rubber people").
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Castilla elastica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
