Rubber trees grow mainly in tropical lowla
nds below 400m altitude, originally covered
by a dense tropical rainforest. Dry spells or
temperatures below 18° C do not affect
vegetative growth but reduce latex yield.
Fertilizer demands for the tree are only
important in the vegetative development stage (first 6 years) when the biomass is built
up. Once the tree is mature and latex tapping ha
s started the mineral
fertilizer supply for
compensating the nutrients exported
by the latex is much smaller.
Rubber is the major industrial
product derived from the latex from a number of trees
belonging to the genus
Hevea
. The bark of these trees contains a network of
interconnected vessels thr
ough which the latex flows when opened. Latex is a
suspension of rubber particles which have to
be coagulated to obtain the rubber. About
90% of the total world production of
natural rubber is obtained from
H. brasiliensis.
Currently, natural rubber on the world market
is competed by synthetic rubber, which is
derived from oil products.