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Hevea benthamiana
Bentham's hevea is a medium-sized rubber tree from wet tropical rainforest in northern Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela, growing to about 27 m. It is a flood-tolerant tree that is tapped for latex and occasionally cultivated, but it is not a common plantation or houseplant crop.
Hevea benthamiana is a species of rubber tree in the genus Hevea, belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. A medium-sized deciduous tree growing to a height of about 27 m (90 ft), it is native to the rainforests of northern Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.
The species is native to northern Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela. Its range is entirely to the north of the Amazon River and covers large parts of the Rio Negro and Vaupés River system, the Rio Negro being the largest left-bank tributary of the Amazon. It grows in areas of rainforest that are frequently inundated, often in association with the fan palm Mauritia carana in bogs that are flooded all year round. Because of its different habitat needs, it does not extend as far west as H. guianensis, H. nitida or H. pauciflora.
H. benthamiana produces a good quality latex which is slightly lower in quality than that of the Pará rubber tree, H. brasiliensis. The tree is tapped for the production of rubber but is not widely grown as a plantation crop, although occasionally cultivated in Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It has been used in breeding programmes for increasing the disease resistance and improving the growth qualities of H. brasiliensis. The seeds contain toxic substances and are poisonous to humans when raw, but they are eaten by local people when thoroughly cooked.
Rubber tree · Hevea camargoana · Hevea camporum · Hevea guianensis · Hevea microphylla · Hevea nitida · Pauciflower · Hevea rigidifolia · Hevea spruceana · Hevea
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Hevea benthamiana 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.
