Ficus elastica leaves the latex of the plant oozing, is coated with cuttings hormones and tightly wrapped with moist foam. The whole is covered with a plastic film and left a few months at the end of which new roots have developed from the axillary buds. The stem is then weaned and the new plant can be repotted. All parts of the plant contain an abundant milky white latex, which has been tested for use in the manufacture of rubber, but without economic and technical results; the rubber is actually produced from the sap of the rubber tree . In cultivation, it
Ficus elastica has broad shiny oval leaves long and broad; leaf size is largest on young plants (occasionally to long), much smaller on old trees (typically long). The leaves develop inside a sheath at the apical meristem, which grows larger as the new leaf develops. When it is mature, it unfurls and the sheath drops off the plant. Inside the new leaf, another immature leaf is waiting to develop. As with other members of the genus "Ficus", the flowers require a particular species of fig wasp to pollinate it in a co-evolved relationship. Because of this relationship, the rubber plant does not