Plants · La Saladita, Guerrero

Panama rubber tree

Castilla elastica

Spanish: Hule

Panama rubber tree (Castilla elastica)
Photographed by skjoldalsted on iNaturalist · CC-BY · taken in Santo Domingo, Santo Domingo de los Colorados, EC, not near La Saladita

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...

TaxonomyMagnoliopsida › Rosales › Moraceae
Local recordsNot recorded by research-grade iNaturalist observations within about 50 km; listed from the site's curated guide
Global records940 on iNaturalist

Interactive card with more photos, sounds and similar species Plants guide iNaturalist Wikipedia

Cite as: “Panama rubber tree (Castilla elastica) at La Saladita”, La Saladita Field Guide, lasaladita.com/species/castilla-elastica/, updated 2026-09-26. Observation counts and months come from iNaturalist research-grade records within about 50 km of 17.8375°N, 101.7606°W (the survey box also takes in Zihuatanejo, Ixtapa and Troncones); summary text from Wikipedia where present.