The first rubber tree of Kuala Kangsar is one of the oldest rubber tree in Malaysia. It stands by the roadside in Kuala Kangsar, Perak. It was planted when the country was still called British Malaya.
It is one of nine seedlings brought over from Brazil by the English botanist H.N. Ridley (Henry Nicholas Ridley) in 1877, and is one of the two oldest rubber trees still standing in Malaysia. I visited it along with the other heritage sites in Bukit Chandan when doing the documentation for the AsiaExplorers Kuala Kangsar Self-Guided Tour.
This rubber tree helped usher in the rubber plantation era of Malaysia in the late 19th and early 20th Century, making Malaysia the world's largest producer of rubber at one time. This was made possible by the encouragement of Sir Hugh Low, the Resident of Perak, who planted several in his garden in Kuala Kangsar.
