Gutta-Percha, a Cold Temprate Climate source of waterproofing?

I was looking for trees to grow for biochar production.
Eucommia ulmoides is the proper name for this tree.
It grows un usda zones 4-8.
I had always though it was a tropical tree, probably confusing it with the Manilkara bidentata  or Palaquium_gutta which produce nearly identical latex.

Eucommia ulmoides grows fast and the latex can be harvested from any part of thr tree using alcohol as a solvent, or tapped as was done traditionally.
Its tough, waterproof and flexible enough to have been used in the first oceanic telegraph cables.
I think it might be used to replace pond liner in a wofati build.
It is suitible for making solid objects, like pistol grips.
Biologically inert, is still used in dentistry.
Other extracts of the tree are traditionally used in Chinese medicine.

https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Eucommia+ulmoides

If it survives in the UK, it should survive in many areas of North America. It seems to need fairly reliable water, so I wonder how it would do along shore-lines? It sounds as if they're coppicing it for fuel production, which makes much more sense than using fuel to grow annual crops like corn for fuel!

Do you know if anyone is growing it in your area?

Hey Jay!
I dont know of anyone growing it around here ,  but it seems like a potential winner, just from the speed of growth alone.
Im gonna look for some seeds for sale.

William Bronson wrote:I dont know of anyone growing it around here ,  but it seems like a potential winner, just from the speed of growth alone.
Im gonna look for some seeds for sale.

I'm wondering if the sap would make it a nuisance as firewood?  Although if they use the sap to make fuel industrially, it will be interesting to see it's burning/biocharring characteristics. Please keep us posted as to what you find out and how it does for you.

There are ways to deal with its needs for more water than my property has in the summer. I have a stock tank for my ducks which I can attach a long pipe to - one year the pipe moved around my bamboo patch and the next year the size of the new culms was noticeably larger! That said, they were also more fragile and we lost a lot of them to snow load the following winter. That suggests to me that *some* duckie water would be a good thing, but not the quantity the ducks produced!  So, as I contemplate how to build a new duck area, I'm trying to figure out the best ways to recapture the water in useful ways that aren't ridiculous work-wise. Having some coppiced firewood trees down-slope might be one useful alternative. That said, dense firewood burns longer and is more compact to store on a BTU basis, so the same issue will apply - some water promoting fast growth is good, too much leading to fast non-dense growth is maybe not so good. We just have to find the balance!

This sounds like an awesome experiment and I will look forward to installments!

This looks like an interesting tree, I wonder if it would grow for me - sounds like it is salt tolerant and copes with a range of conditions. So might be worth a try if I can get some seed....
Here's a reference from the US that may be of more relevance to you that side of the Atlantic.
University of Minnisota