SERINGUEIRA

Rubber

The most commercially important rubber tree is native to the rainforests of the Amazon region in South America. Henry Wickham smuggled rubber seeds out of this region on behalf of the British Government and sent them to Kew for experimentation. The seedlings grown from them at Kew were then sent to British colonies in Asia where they formed the basis of a British rubber industry supplying more affordable rubber and led to the eventual collapse of the Brazilian rubber trade.