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Para rubber tree

A Para rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) with its distinctive large, green, palmate leaves and brown trunk stands against a black background.

Hevea brasiliensis, a tall tree native to the Amazon basin whose milky latex is the source of nearly all natural rubber. Tapped by spiral incisions through the bark, a mature tree yields roughly a kilogram of dry rubber per year for some thirty years. Seeds smuggled out of Brazil by Henry Wickham in 1876 founded the Asian plantations that now produce most of the world's supply.

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