A popular indoor plant in temperate countries, including some forms with variegated bicoloured leaves. To those who know it only as an indoor plant it is surprising to find that it can become a tree up to 30 m high.
Adventitious roots descending from the branches root when they touch the ground. As they in turn reproduce themselves in this way, the offspring can cover a considerable area – up to an acre has been recorded in the wild.
Before the introduction of the Brazilian rubber tree into Asian plantations, Ficus elastica was one of many sources of wild natural rubber. It was of good quality but it could not compete commercially. Cuttings are exported from Tenerife to Central Europe. “Decora” is a cultivar with bigger and broader leafs.