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Thirty-six Hevea clones were inoculated with conidia of Microcyclus ulei, the causal agent of South American Leaf Blight in an air-conditioned chamber. Components of disease resistance such as latent period, infectious period, lesion size, percentage of damaged leaf area, number of lesions, spore production and stromatic generation period were studied during a single infection cycle. The clones were easily separated on the basis of these characters that were evaluated under controlled conditions. The main components that were highly correlated were the spore production, lesion size and number of lesions with the percentage of damaged leaf area. Others, such the stromatic generation period, were slightly correlated with all other components; latent period and infectious period was slightly correlated with the lesion size; and lesion size was slightly correlated with lesion density. For screening of varieties, damaged leaf area and spore production were the two components that should be considered the most important. Furthermore, the clones were tested for their capacity to produce scopoletin, a phytoalexin of Hevea, and to produce lignins in their infection sites. A strong correlation was observed between scopoletin accumulation and clone resistance. Moreover, strong lignin accumulation was often associated with a longer stromatic generation period. These two physiological reactions could interfere by limiting fungal development in several clones. However, neither scopoletin nor lignin accumulation could individually explain the behaviour of all clones.