RUBBER FROM WEEDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 95, 24 August 1942, Page 5

RUBBER FROM WEEDS

•QUEENSLAND POINSETTIA

POSSIBLE NEW INDUSTRIES

Queensland's most, colourful tropi? -cal shrub, the poinsettia, may help to solve Australia's rubber shortage. Experts are now considering the possibilities of poinsettia plants, which are growing in millions in Queensland and other parts of Australia, as a source of rubber.

A United States chemist claims that, an acre of poinsettia avill produce 30001b of rubber. Melbourne manufacturers have become interested, and Mr A. Gharlesworth, a member of the Commonwealth Rubber Panel, said his company had already obtained rubber from the poinsettia and had acquired large quantities of plant for pressing and extraction.

If. proved to be of commercial value as a source of rubber, the poinsettia could be grown in the same way as sugar. Each plant can be cut back annually for at least 20 years. The shrub is a quick grower and, grown in quantities, it could provide substantial supplies. Mr Charlesworth has suggested that one of the first jobs of the committee of rubber engineers and chemists, which the Department of Supply is .appointing for research, should lie to examine the possibilities of the poinsettia. Qncnsland also is attempting to relieve the rubber shortage by harvesting the Madagascar rubber vine, formerly considered a pest, wlikh is growing wild in fairly large quantities in parts of. the north. In its -wild state the A-ine is expected to yield up to 1001b of dry rubber %o the acre. It is a prolific grower and it may now be cultivated on an extensive scale. Properly cultivated, the yield would be greater.