How a Xinjiang weed could reduce China’s reliance on Southeast Asian rubber

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.China is the world’s largest rubber consumer. Photo: ShutterstockLast 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.