Castilla elastica
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| Castilla elastica | ||||||||||||||
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| Castilla elastica Sessé |
Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree, is a tree native to the tropical areas of Mexico and Central America which was, in pre-Columbian times, the principal source of latex among the Mesoamerican peoples. The latex gathered from Castilla elastica was converted into usable rubber by mixing the latex sap 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 rubber produced by this method found several uses, including most notably, the manufacture of balls for the Mesoamerican ballgame.
The Aztec (Nahuatl) word for rubber was ulli / olli, from which their word for the ballgame derived (ullamaliztli), and also their name for the ancient people they associated with the origin of the ballgame, the Olmecs (olmeca: "rubber people"). The Nahuatl word for the tree of Castilla elastica is olicuáhuitl[1]; in Spanish it is known as palo de hule.
[edit] Subspecies
- Castilla elastica ssp. costaricana (Liebm.) C. C. Berg
- Castilla elastica ssp. elastica (Castilloa rubber)
[edit] See also
- guayule - another source of latex utilized by the pre-Columbian Mesoamericans
- Para rubber tree - the main source of modern commercial natural latex
[edit] References
- Wimmer, Alexis (2006). Dictionnaire de la langue nahuatl classique (online version). (French) (Nahuatl)
- Zidar, Charles (2006). Ancient Maya Botanical Research (online database). Foundations for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc. Retrieved on 2007-06-13.
