Rubber tree seeds, Fordlandia

Just for you historian buffs, this young rubber tree germinated from a seed I brought back from Fordlandia. I don't remember the year but I do remember that I was traveling with Cristovam Sena, technical consultant for an English film crew doing a documentary for The History Channel. The documentary, which features Henry Ford in the Amazon, continues to be aired on The History Channel on regular basis. I'm sure most of my readers have seen it more than once. My role was simply that of providing logistical support for the team, as well as some translation services. I brought back a handful of seeds from Fordlandia thinking that a rubber tree from Fordlandia would be great show and tell at Bosque Santa Lucia. All the seeds germinated and I eventually got one of the seedlings into the ground. It got off to a rough start with the long droughts we've experienced over the last few years. As a matter of fact, I thought it had died. There was not one leaf on the tree until I started giving it water from our new drilled well. The leaves are now coming out and it'll continue to grow. It'll be testimony to a lot of interesting history.