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Zhang Tong

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.
The amount may seem modest, but its strategic importance is enormous.
Natural rubber is a vital resource for a wide range of products, from tyres and cables to medical gloves, aerospace seals, shoes and toys.
Unlike synthetic rubber, it is stronger, more resistant to wear and performs better across a broad temperature range.
China is the world’s biggest rubber consumer, using roughly 7 million tonnes of natural rubber last year and accounting for over 40 per cent of global natural rubber consumption.
Yet, domestic production covers less than 20 per cent of that demand, making the country heavily dependent on imports.
In 2025, China imported about 6.5 million tonnes of natural rubber across all forms – roughly half of all global natural imports.
Nearly all of the world’s natural rubber comes from the Brazilian rubber tree, which grows only in tropical climates.
Southeast Asia produces roughly 70 per cent of the world’s natural rubber, led mainly by Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia.
In China, suitable planting areas are limited to a few regions such as Hainan, Yunnan and Guangdong provinces, and these are already at full capacity.
The rubber dandelion, however, could make a difference.
Research on the plant began more than 70 years ago. In 1951, Tu Zhi, the first president of the Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), led early cultivation experiments on the native species. But the work was later shelved because of market constraints.


In 2012, Xu Lin from CAS revived the project. However, urban sprawl and overgrazing had shrunk the rubber dandelion’s natural habitat, and seedlings were often eaten by animals, making it extremely difficult to find viable seed stock in the region.
Today, the research team at the academy has built a complete research chain, covering seed innovation, breeding, cultivation techniques, by-product development and rubber extraction.
Last month, the team worked with Beijing University of Chemical Technology and Shihezi Vocational University to set up a pilot extraction line, marking a step forward in turning grass into rubber in Xinjiang.
Agriculture expert Zhang Yan from the team told local media that while a rubber tree took six to seven years from planting to its first tapping, the rubber dandelion could be sown, harvested and processed all in the same year.
It could also be densely planted and fully mechanised within that time.
The plant is naturally suited to Xinjiang’s dry, saline, alkaline and cool environment. Its seedlings tolerate temperatures as low as minus 5 degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit), and mature plants can survive minus 30 degrees.
It even grows on heavily saline soil with a pH of 8 and salt content above 20 grams per kilogram, meaning it can make good use of marginal land that is otherwise difficult to farm.
According to Zhang Jichuan, a professor at Beijing University of Chemical Technology: “The natural rubber extracted from the dandelion root has the same molecular structure as that from the Brazilian rubber tree and performs just as well in elasticity, wear resistance and tear strength.”
The rubber content in the root ranges naturally from 3 to 12 per cent, but work by a team led by Li Jiayang, a CAS academician, has used gene editing to boost that figure to nearly 30 per cent.
According to mainland digital platform Chao News, this year the plant is being tested in various locations across Xinjiang, including the regions Kashgar, Altay and Zhaosu, covering more than 13 hectares.
The team’s medium- and long-term plan is to expand cultivation to over 1,330 hectares, putting idle saline and alkaline land in northern Xinjiang to productive use.


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China

Dandelion that oozes milky fluid when root is broken poised to help ease country’s import reliance


Dandelion that oozes milky fluid when root is broken poised to help ease country’s import reliance.


Brazil

Xinjiang

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

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Dandelion that oozes milky fluid when root is broken poised to help ease country’s import reliance

Dandelion that oozes milky fluid when root is broken poised to help ease country’s import reliance