The tree mentioned in the article, Ficus elastica is actually a plant that you may already know: it's the fig that is grown indoors as a houseplant, commonly ca

The tree mentioned in the article, Ficus elastica is actually a plant that you may already know: it's the fig that is grown indoors as a houseplant, commonly called a rubber tree or a rubber plant. In general tropical figs are rapid growing but not particularly long-lived plants. A tree may live 80 years, but not much longer than that (this is unpublished data that Charles Handley of the Smithsonian Institution shared with me; he studied cohorts of fig trees for many decades, well into his 80's; possibly the only person who has ever done such a long term study on figs).