India rubber plant

Macrophthalma elastica (Roxburgh ex Hornemann) Gasparrini; Urostigma elasticum (Roxburgh ex Hornemann) Miquel

Trees , evergreen, to 12 m, epiphytic when young. Roots aerial, abundant. Bark gray, smooth or slightly roughened. Branchlets greenish brown, glabrous. Leaves: stipules 3-10 cm; petiole 2.5-10 cm. Leaf blade oblong-elliptic to obovate, 9-30 × 5-12 cm, leathery, base rounded, margins entire, apex abruptly short-acuminate or apiculate; surfaces abaxially and adaxially glabrous; basal veins 1(-2) pairs; lateral veins 10 or more, parallel; secondary veins inconspicuous. Syconia paired, sessile, greenish yellow, oblong-ovoid, ca. 2 × ca. 1.5 cm, glabrous; subtending bracts caducous, leaving annual scar, entirely enclosing young syconia, glabrous; ostiole closed by 3 apical bracts, umbonate.

Flowering all year. Disturbed sites; 0-10 m; introduced; Fla.; West Indies (Lesser Antilles); Asia (native to India).

Ficus elastica is commonly cultivated. It has not been collected recently in the area of the flora.