Making Rubber

The cultivation of the tree in South America (Amazon) ended early in the 20th century because of indigenous blights that targeted the rubber tree. The blight, called South American leaf blight, is caused by the ascomycete Pseudocercospora ulei, also called Microcyclus ulei, or Dothidella ulei, which is endemic to the Amazon Basin. The blight was considered one of the five most aggressive diseases in commercial crops in South America. Rubber production then moved to parts of the world where it is not indigenous, and therefore not affected by local plant diseases.[18] Today, most rubber tree plantations are in South and Southeast Asia, the top rubber producing countries in 2011 being Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Vietnam.