Rubber plant (Ficus elastica)

#This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of a rubber plant having border-variegated foliage, Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort., which variety is characterized particularly by its leaf blade having a very narrow and distinct light-yellow border on the edge of the leaf and by reddish buds and reddish young leaves.

#This new variety of rubber plant was discovered on July 10, 1971 as a bud mutation while we were cultivating approximately 5,000 plants of a known variety of rubber plant, Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort., at a greenhouse of Mr. Tokuyasu Ito, one of the inventors, located at No. 56, 6-chome, Kamiari-cho, Hekinan-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan. This plant of the known variety was first imported from West Germany to Japan around 1960 and propagated by Mr. Daizo Oguri residing at Iwasuberi-cho, Handa-shi, Aichi-ken, Japan. Some of the propagated plants were transferred to Mr. Ito and propagated by us since the summer of 1962. Ever since the finding of this new variety in 1971, we have propagated said new variety by stem-cutting (single eye cutting). It has been confirmed that the characteristics of this new variety are very uniform and stable in respective specimens.

#In the accompanying drawings,

#FIG. 1 is a view of the 1971-discovered parent plant of the new variety of rubber plant,

#FIGS. 2A and 2B are views of a typical specimen of the new variety of rubber plant separated from the 1971-discovered parent and a plant, grown leaf of said specimen, respectively, and

#The plant of the new variety is, as set forth hereinbefore, a bud mutation of the known variety, Ficus elastica Roxb. var. decora tricolor hort. Since 1971, Scions have been annually cut and propagated from the parent plant by the stem-cutting process, and, therefore, the growth characteristics of the parent plant are not as good as those of the specimens separated from the parent plant for cultivation. The resultant growth characteristics of the parent plant observed on Aug. 5, 1975 are as follows.

#The plant is about 110 centimeters tall, and shoot growth in the rooted stem cuttings is very vigorous, said growing condition being substantially the same as that of the time when the bud mutation was first discovered in 1971.

#Border variegation on the leaves is very stable and substantially uniform throughout all of the leaves, from the upper leaves to the lower leaves as shown in FIG. 1.