Dandelion that oozes milky fluid when root is broken poised to help ease country’s import reliance
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Chinese scientists have turned a dandelion-like weed into natural rubber, a step that could help cut China’s heavy reliance on imported rubber.
Growing on the salty, alkaline shores at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region , the plant looks much like an ordinary weed, with small yellow flowers and fluffy seeds.
But when its root is broken, it oozes a milky fluid that is natural rubber.
The weed is known as the rubber dandelion, or Taraxacum kok-saghyz.
Last month, researchers in Xinjiang harvested one tonne of dried roots from a 20-mu (about 1.3-hectare) test field and extracted 40kg (88lbs) of natural rubber.