Gambassi also developed a durable, sticky resin from a Para rubber tree plant, to bind the sole to the top of Brough's stiletto and platform heels.

FORBES: Fancy Footwork

Plants in this family, which include the rubber tree, castor oil plant and the cassava shrub, are typified by small blossoms, the researchers comment.

BBC: NEWS | Science/Nature | Family found for gigantic flowers

Mr Sha, the company's best manager, who ran a rubber-parts factory in the mountains of Anhui province in central China, secretly set up a rival plant down the valley which he financed by siphoning money from the Asimco joint venture.

ECONOMIST: A disorderly heaven