Is it possible to have two trees in one?
Plaza Park in downtown Ventura is the home of the India Rubber Tree which is now a Moreton Bay Fig tree.
How did this happen?
A popular version of the story is about a nurseryman who ordered a shipment of trees from Moreton Bay, Australia in 1874. While trying to sell his 18-inch "India Rubber Trees" in Ventura, he came across ten-year-old John Hobson, who bought and planted his new rubber tree in Plaza Park.
It grew...and grew!
And as the leaves became more rounded, people began to think that the tree resembled a Moreton Bay Fig as opposed to a rubber tree.
Finally, a local columnist by the name of Joe Paul, Jr., decided to put an end to the controversy and take a trip to Australia for some answers.
While in Australia, Joe Paul not only realized that this was the home of the so-called rubber tree, but that it was considerably larger than others growing in that country.
So, eighty years and sixty-eight feet later, the Plaza Park India Rubber Tree was given the official name, "Ficus Elastica" or Moreton Bay Fig.
