What Is Asian Rubber Hardwood

Many big box and home furnishings retailers will have pieces made out of rubberwood.

What is asian rubber hardwood.

The wood itself is grown primarily in malaysia thailand and other tropical southeast asian regions. Rubberwood actually does come from rubber trees. It comes from the rubber tree also known as hevea brasiliensis which can grow 50 to 75 feet in height and whose latex sap is the primary source of the world s rubber. Rubberwood is a whitish lumber that gradually fades to a light brown over time.

Rubberwood is derived from the rubber tree. Also known as rubberwood parawood or para rubber tree asian hardwood lumber is a byproduct of rubber plantations produced from older trees that no longer produce latex. Rubberwood is a light colored medium density tropical hardwood obtained from the pará rubber tree hevea brasiliensis usually from trees grown in rubber plantations. Rubberwood is commonly advertised as an environmentally friendly wood 2 as it makes use of plantation trees that have already served a useful function.

Rubberwood is seen on a wide variety of mostly inexpensive asian imported furniture. In many aspects it is comparable to teak. After latex production declines about 30 years the trees are harvested and the plantations are replanted. This latex is used to make rubber.

China is the largest source of rubberwood furniture. The rubber tree gets its name from the commercially harvested milky latex it exudes when cut. When sold in this capacity it is sometimes marketed under the ambiguous moniker plantation hardwood.