Hevea tree and its "rubber milk"

One of the wonderful plants that Mother Nature has filled our land with is a Hevea tree. What is special about it, what kind of application did the person come up with and what does it look like? Let's figure it out.

Appearance and features of the plant

Hevea (rubber tree) is a tropical plant that occurs in Indonesia, Malaysia and South America. It is special in that when the cortex is cut out, milky white juice appears that resembles the juice of a milkweed or dandelion that is familiar to all. The frozen mass was used by the Indians to make various household items, including balls for ritual games.

The hevea tree itself belongs to the genus of red trees, so it has an unusual strength and hardness of wood, which is also easy to process. Products from it are resistant to decay, therefore are very durable and beautiful. But the main value of this evergreen plant up to fifty meters high is its juice.

Rubber Milk

This is how the inhabitants of the tropics call the juice that gives the plant a hevea. Latex (the same juice scientifically) is not extracted from every tree. First of all, it must reach the age of ten to twelve years. And to determine the age of the hevea helps only its growth and the diameter of the trunk, as it does not have rings on the cut and texture. "Adult" can be considered a plant height of 24 meters and a diameter of 75 centimeters. Rubber from one tree can be extracted until thirty years, after which it is cut down and replaced with a young plant. But they are not specially planted: in a moist and warm environment, its large seeds, resembling chestnuts, sprout themselves. Therefore, workers even have to thin out thickets of young plants, so that they do not turn into impenetrable jungles.

It is worth noting that latex is extracted not only from Hevea. Similar properties have a thick juice of some varieties of ficuses, but still the Brazilian plant is the most productive, and the rubber from it has a higher quality. That's why the Hevea tree flooded all the world's plantations.

How is rubber collected?

In the juice that is extracted from Hevea, water, proteins, resins, ash and sugar are contained, in addition to rubber. Therefore, after collection, the liquid is cleaned and squeezed out of the water. This is the so-called raw rubber, which later turns into a material for various rubber products.

Every morning the tree of a hevea undergoes such an operation: on the trunk a special knife is made by incision, deep and inclined. Under it attach containers for collecting milk juice - clay or porcelain cups of small size. For a day from one plant, you can collect about two hundred grams of juice. After lunch, the worker bypasses the rubber plantation and merges all the contents into a can. And then the "harvest" is sent to the plant for further processing.

Hevea juice at the factory

What next do with the juice collected from an unusual tree? It is filtered, acetic acid is added and poured into large baking sheets. There, the mass thickens and freezes. Then these white cloths are rolled through the patterned iron rolls and dried. The final stage is smoking, thanks to which rubber acquires a wax-translucent color and protection from voracious ants.

Life of one tree

It is worth noting that the old rubber tree looks very bad. It's because every day for fifteen to twenty years, they are blown up by incisions. This crust covers the trunk entirely from the base to the human growth (it is inconvenient to collect the juice above). Each new groove is made lower than the previous one on the whole section of the crust, and when one side of the tree is covered with notches, they pass to the other. When there is not even one untouched place left, the worker again returns to the front of the trunk and cuts the "wounds" that are covered with the scar. Just for the life of one hevea, about ten thousand incisions are applied to her body, of which up to two tons of rubber are collected.

It should be noted that the content of rubber plantations is a very profitable business. In the world market, a ton of raw material costs about six hundred dollars, and one tree can give juice for 40-50 dollars per year, without requiring special expenses. That's why in the Malay Archipelago on every free piece of land it grows Hevea. The tree, the photo of which is presented in this article, is considered a gift of the gods, and it is an important part of the economies of the countries.

Afterword

It is worth noting that today, often used and wood of rubber for the production of furniture, frames, kitchen accessories, floor. Especially good cutting boards from it, because they do not absorb moisture. A special coloration of Hevea allows you to do exclusive things and embody the most bizarre fantasies of designers. This is it, a unique tree from the New World, which has made the life of a person more comfortable. And now the main task of Homo sapiens is to preserve this plant, because it can disappear from the face of the earth because of its intensive use.