By DOUG GRAVES
Ohio Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Who would have ever believed it? The dandelion, so despised by lawn care experts everywhere, may soon be heralded as a blessing in disguise. Specifically, a Russian dandelion may resolve this nation’s rubber shortage.

A decline in rubber production and disappointment in synthetics has companies in the U.S. taking a closer look at this plant (or weed). At The Ohio State University’s Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC), scientists are carefully breeding Taraxacum kok-saghyz (TKS, commonly known as the Russian dandelion) to squeeze latex from the weed.

Last week, USDA researchers were with botanists from Russia and Kazakhstan in the Kazakh mountains, collecting dandelion seeds for study and hybridizing.

Growing the Russian dandelion in Ohio – where agriculture and tire manufacturing are huge – is a natural, said Bryan Kinnamon, president of Delta Plant Technologies, a group of Akron-area entrepreneurs. A former Goodyear executive, Kinnamon brought the dandelion idea to the OSU research center. Other partners include Cooper Tire & Rubber and Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire.

The United States spends about $3 billion annually on natural rubber from Asia. Kinnamon said 3 million acres of dandelions could supply 30 percent of demand. To put that into perspective: Ohio grew about 14 million acres of crops last year, including 3.85 million acres of corn and 4.15 million acres of soybeans, according to the Ohio Department of Agriculture. This rubber could one day become the main ingredient of tires made in the United States.
“In a nutshell, we’re trying to create a crop that will serve as a new source of natural rubber,” said Matthew Kleinhenz, an OSU professor of horticulture and crop science.

Kleinhenz’s team is working on its fourth generation of dandelion plants, carefully bred to increase the amount and quality of latex. The weed is native to the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

Kleinhenz said dandelions require little fertilizer and no irrigation. The cost of growing them would be about $100 per acre, compared with the $300 per acre for some flowers and food crops. The OARDC is working with the University of Akron (UA) and Oregon State University.

A $14 billion market, natural rubber accounts for about 20 percent of the materials used in tires, and some experts are forecasting a natural rubber shortage by the end of the decade. Early commercialization of dandelion latex could begin in three to five years, with full production possible in 10-15 years.

Bob Seiple, manager of the UA’s Applied Polymer Research Center, said more than 2,000 plant species, including the common dandelion, make rubber.

But none seem to produce as much as the Russian dandelion or contain as strong a rubber. Seiple said a truck tire made with 1.5 pounds of rubber from Uzbekistan had “fairly similar properties” to a tire made with rubber-tree rubber.

Rubber used in the United States comes from tree plantations in southeastern Asia. Since 2002, the price of rubber has risen with energy and transportation costs. And while demand for rubber is growing, supply is shrinking.

In Malaysia, once the world’s largest rubber producer, rubber tree plantations are being replanted with palm trees for palm oil, which is used to make biodiesel. According to the OARDC:
•Russian dandelions can be nearly identical to common dandelions found here

•Leaves come in three types: smooth spoon shape, sharp saw-tooth and rounded saw-tooth
•Flower: Yellow, composite head
•Reproduction: sexual and asexual
•Growing season: About one year
•Native range: Mountains of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
•Rubber content: 10-20 percent of root

Natural rubber is pervasive in modern life with more than 40,000 products and 400 medical devices containing the material. In many applications, no synthetic materials can achieve its combination of performance and cost effectiveness. Natural rubber has the advantage of being a renewable resource.