Castilla elastica Castilla elastica Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. It was the principal source of latex among the Mesoamerican peoples in pre-Columbian times. The latex gathered from "Castilla elastica" was converted into usable rubber by mixing the latex with the juice of the morning glory species "Ipomoea alba" which, conveniently, is typically found in the wild as a vine climbing "Castilla elastica". The rubber produced by this method found several uses, including most notably, the manufacture of balls for the Mesoamerican ballgame "ōllamaliztli". The Aztec
Ficus macrophylla botanist Charles Moore described "Ficus columnaris" in 1870 from material collected from Lord Howe Island, choosing the species name from the Latin "columnaris" for the column-like roots. English botanist E. J. H. Corner reduced this to synonymy with "F. macrophylla" in 1965, before P. S. Green noted it was distinct enough for subspecies status in 1986. Australian botanist Dale J. Dixon reviewed material and felt the differences too minor to warrant subspecific status, and recognised two forms: "Ficus macrophylla" f. "macrophylla", a free-standing tree endemic to mainland Australia; and "Ficus macrophylla" f. "columnaris", a hemiepiphyte lacking a distinct main trunk