''Sapium glandulosum'' is a species of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the family

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae, the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of a genus in the family. Most spurges, such as '' Euphorbia paralias'', are herbs, but some, ...

. It is native to the

Neotropics The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone. Definition In bi ...

from

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and the Caribbean south to

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

, and it has been cultivated elsewhere.''Sapium''.
Malesian Euphorbiaceae Descriptions. National Herbarium Nederland. It is the most common ''Sapium'' species. Its common names include gumtree, milktree, ''leche de olivo'', and ''olivo macho''.''Sapium glandulosum''.
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. This is a species of tree up to 30 meters tall, usually with some

buttress root Buttress roots also known as plank roots are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They prevent the tree from falling over (hence t ...

s and multiple trunks. Smaller woody parts can have short, thick spines. It has a thin, patchy, peeling, scarred outer

bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, en ...

and a granular inner bark. It produces large amounts of milky

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosper ...

. The alternately arranged leaves have toothed oblong or oval leaves up to 27 centimeters long by 8 wide. New leaves have gland-tipped teeth. The species is

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy i ...

. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed ...

is a spikelike arrangement of clusters of male flowers with a few female flowers at the base. The tiny rounded purple male flower is barely over a millimeter long. The female flower has 3 styles about 2 millimeters long. The fruit is a greenish-brown, rounded capsule up to a centimeter long which splits into 3 segments, each holding a seed. The seed is covered in a thin layer of red pulp. This tree grows in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

moist and wet

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s. The copious latex is of high quality and can be used to make

rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, a ...

. It is difficult to harvest, so it is not commercially useful.

References

Hippomaneae Flora of Mexico Flora of South America Flora of Central America Flora of the Caribbean Plants described in 1753 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Trees of Peru Taxonomy articles created by Polbot {{Euphorbiaceae-stub