Ficus elastica
- noun
- Specialized
:
Ficus elastica
- Many homeowners choose Ficus elastica for its attractive, glossy leaves and easy maintenance.
Examples
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The Ficus elastica can grow impressively tall in its natural habitat, but is often kept small indoors.
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Latex harvested from Ficus elastica was historically used in the production of rubber.
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The Ficus elastica is a popular houseplant.
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I bought a Ficus elastica for my living room.
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Many homeowners choose Ficus elastica for its attractive, glossy leaves and easy maintenance.
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The Ficus elastica can grow impressively tall in its natural habitat, but is often kept small indoors.
-
I bought a Ficus elastica for my living room.
Synonyms
1
3.1
Large tropical tree often kept indoors as a houseplant that can make natural rubber
A large Asian tree with shiny leaves often grown indoors as a houseplant
A tropical tree often kept indoors as a houseplant with large shiny leaves
A large tropical Asian tree that makes a milky sap used to make things like tyres
A big tropical tree with large shiny leaves grown indoors and once used to make rubber
Surface Forms
Morphology
This is a Latin binomial combining the genus name 'Ficus' (a group of tropical plants) with the epithet 'elastica' (linked to rubber-producing trees). A learner who knows both constituents can transparently infer this refers to a Ficus species associated with rubber—a large tropical/tree houseplant—and taxonomic naming is a predictable, cross-linguistic pattern.
Etymology
Ficus elastica gets its name from Latin: Ficus means 'fig' and elastica means 'elastic'. It makes a milky sap called latex that was used to make 'rubber', so the name points to its stretchy sap and explains why people call it the 'rubber plant' today.