The Rubber Tree is a popular plant and can be found growing indoors and out. It had thick, shiny, oval shaped leaves that are usually dark green (sometimes a burgundy). The leaves can get eight to twelve inches long and they can come in various colors of dark green, deep maroon or marked with yellow, cream, pink or white.
Indoors a Rubber Tree can get five to eight feet tall in just a few seasons. Outdoors they can grow as tall as any other tree (20+). However their survival outdoors depends on what “zone” you live in. This plant being a tropical plant it would do best outdoors in Hawaii (and places with similar climate. It all makes sense when you know where it originated from, keep reading).
Rubber Tree (or Plant) is native to India and Malaysia. Also know as Ficus elastica, this plant is one of earliest houseplants. Because of its easy propagation the Rubber Tree has been a favorite of houseplants enthusiast worldwide. (Propagate with cuttings or air-layering)
Not only is it easy to propagate it is an easy plant to care for. Rubber tree’s will adjust to almost any kind of light, if you have to place it in a low-light area it will survive (be nice to your plants, do not let them stay in low-light areas for long if they are not meant for low-light. Yeah a kid will survive in a closet but not forever. You have to let him out sometime, it is the same for a plant (note: DO NOT PUT A KID IN A CLOSET IS WAS AN EXAMPLE!!).
Improper watering is the only thing that will kill a Rubber Tree. If you do not water it at least once a week (twice a week if you live in a dry place) it will not be able to grow or even maintain itself. Of course, you can over water it. You never want its roots to be sitting in water. Make sure any pot you use for a Rubber Tree has adequate drainage.
Rubber Trees are also known for their root development. Depending on the plant, watering, fertilizing, etc, it can take as little as six months for a Rubber Tree to out-grow its pot becoming “pot (or root) bound”. Both over-watering and being pot bound will make the leaves turn yellow.
When a leaf is cut or ripped off you will see a white sticky sap bleed out of the plant. That sap is how this plant got its name. I do not know all the science behind it but that sap (or sap from close relative to the Rubber Tree) can be use to make a rubber or something like rubber. Like I said I do not know all the details. I do know that the sap can irritate skin, so if you are sensitive-skinned person avoid getting the sap on you. If you do, wash it off ASAP.
It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway. DO NOT eat this plant, TEACH kids/pets that it is not okay to mess with this plant (for their own safety).
(sorry this info is not in the post titled Rubber Tree, I thought it had saved that post but I guess not, lol. My bad!!)
Look up Rubber Tree for Pictures, I cannot get the pictures in the post!
