Гевея – резеңкі ағаштар туысы

Genus of flowering plants in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae that includes the rubber tree

Hevea is a genus of flowering plants in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, with about ten members. It is also one of many names used commercially for the wood of the most economically important rubber tree, H. brasiliensis. The genus is native to tropical South America but is widely cultivated in other tropical countries and naturalized in several of them. It was first described in 1775.

French botanist and explorer Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet first described Hevea as a genus in 1775. H. brasiliensis and H. guianensis are large trees, often reaching more than in height. Most of the other members of the genus are small to medium trees, and H. camporum is a shrub of around Trees in this genus are either deciduous or evergreen. Certain species, namely H. benthamiana, H. brasiliensis and H. microphylla, bear "winter shoots", stubby side shoots with short internodes, scale leaves on the stem and larger leaves near the tip; on these, the leaves are shed leaving the tree bare before new shoots develop. The most widespread species is H. guianensis which occurs over the whole range of the genus.

Each species has its own habitat requirements; H. brasiliensis grows on well drained soils but tolerates light flooding; H. guianensis, H. pauciflora and H. rigidifolia grow in well drained soil, on high river banks and on slopes; and H. camporum grows on savannahs. Other species such as H. benthamiana, H. microphylla and H. spruceana need wetter conditions in locations subject to seasonal flooding for several months each year, and H. nitida grows both in periodically inundated swamps and in drier locations such as rocky hillsides well above the flood level.