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Matthew Kleinhenz, Ohio State University professor of horticulture and crop science, leads a team trying to create a stronger dandelion that can help meet a growing demand for rubber.

SCIENCE

Roots to rubber

Ohio State scientists see Russian dandelion as a new, sustainable source of natural latex

WOOSTER, Ohio -- During World War II, the Soviet Union made tires for its military machine out of rubber extracted from a dandelion that grows in the mountains of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.At Ohio State University's Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, scientists are carefully breeding Taraxacum kok-saghyz to squeeze rubber from the weed.

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