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 microcarpa Ficus microcarpa Ficus microcarpa, also known as Chinese banyan, Malayan banyan, Indian laurel, curtain fig, or , is a tree in the fig family Moraceae. It is native in a range from China through tropical Asia and the Caroline Islands to Australia. It is widely planted as a shade tree and frequently misidentified as "F. retusa" or as "F. nitida" ("F. benjamina"). "Ficus microcarpa" has been described in 1782 by Carl Linnaeus the Younger. The species has a considerable number of synonyms. In 1965, E. J. H. Corner described seven varieties (and two forms of "Ficus microcarpa" var. "microcarpa") which