• Aloe vera is one of many plants that feel like rubber.Buena Vista Images/Stockbyte/Getty Images
  
  The leaves of plants come in a wide range of shapes and textures. Some leaves are stiff and spiky while others are soft and hairy. Many plants even have leaves that feel like rubber, particularly many species of succulents, which are plants that retain lots of water and often have medicinal uses. Grow some of these plants in your garden to add diversity and acquire some very useful plants.
  
  

Aloe Vera

• This highly useful plant is native to Africa and has thick, rubbery leaves filled with gelatinous liquid. Aloe vera needs a warm, dry climate to grow, and freezing temperatures will kill it. Grow aloe vera in USDA zones 10 to 11 if planting outdoors. Aloe vera has many uses, particularly when it comes to skin care and first aid. You can treat cuts, burns, rashes, dry skin, irritations and other skin ailments with aloe vera. For best results, fertilize aloe vera with half strength, bloom-type fertilizer in the spring and minimize watering during winter.
  
  

Confederate Jasmine

• A member of the dogbane family, this climbing aromatic vine has thick, egg-shaped rubbery leaves that are approximately one-inch long. Native to Mexico, South America and the West Indies, the confederate jasmine also produces funnel-shaped white flowers that bloom during the spring and summer. This perennial flower grows in tropical forests, moist embankments, swamp margins, seepage areas, ponds and thickets. The confederate jasmine also is known as the star jasmine in some locations. This outdoor plant can grow in USDA hardiness zones 8 to 10.
  
  

Sempervivum

• Latin for "always living," sempervivum is a rubbery-leafed succulent plant commonly known as hens and chicks. Sempervivum is a hardy, drought-tolerant green plant that grows best in dry climates with plenty of sun. The plant produces rosettes in a spiral pattern that become smaller the closer they are to the center. Sempervivums are often grown with cacti or placed in small rock gardens. To encourage growth, use fertilizer made of cow manure or warm castings once a year. In Ancient Rome people used crushed sempervivum leaves to treat sores, warts, burns, calluses and ringworms.