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CHAPTER 7

YIELD COMPONENTS IN HEVEA BRASILIENSIS

M.R. SETHURAJ
Rubber Research Institute of India. Kottayam-686009, Kerala, India.

The economic product from rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) is latex,

contained in an anastomosing latex vessel system situated in the b a r k . Latex
is obtained by wounding the bark by a process termed tapping. Latex is
a specialised cytoplasm of the laticiferous tissue and contains 30-40 per
cent rubber, which chemically is cis-polyisoprene (see Chapter 6, Eds.).
Usually a half spiral cut is made on the trunk with a tapping knife to
extract latex. The latex flows out when a tapping cut is made, mainly
because of the very high turgour pressure in the latex v e s s e l s . The initial
flow of latex is due to elastic contraction of walls after a sudden release
of turgour as a result of tapping. After a while, the flow is regulated
by capillary forces until it ceases as the latex coagulates and plugs the
vessels (Boatman, 1966; Milford et a l . , 1969) (see Chapter 14, Eds.). A
budded tree is opened for tapping when it attains a girth of 50 cm at a
height of 125 cm from the bud union. In most of the rubber growing
countries, the trees are tapped alternate daily though lower frequencies
have been adopted in many plantations (see Chapter 12, Eds.). On the
contrary, many small farmers tap the trees even d a i l y . The total period
of exploitation of a tree is about 25 y e a r s .
In this chapter, an attempt is made to analyse the components of
yield at whole-tree, cellular and sub-cellular levels. For a general under­
standing of the physiology of production, a reference to e a r l i e r reviews
by Blackman (1965), Sethuraj (1968, 1985, 1987), Southorn (1969), Boatman
(1970), Buttery and Boatman (1976), Moraes (1977), Gomez (1983) and
d'Auzac et a l . (1989) is recommended.
A comprehensive analysis of the components of yield should separately
consider the factors influencing (i) the yield per tree each time it is
tapped, (ii) annual yield from unit area of land, and (iii) the cumulative
yield through the economic life span of the plantation.

YIELD FROM A TREE EACH TIME IT IS TAPPED

The yield of rubber from a tree on tapping is determined by the