Taraxacum kok-saghyz known as kok-saghyz or "Russian dandelion" is an efficient rubber producer with the same qualities as Hevea brasiliensis (Lobanov, 1951).
During the Soviet regime from 1930 to 1940 dandelion kok-saghyz attracted much attention as one of the domestic rubber-bearing plants, with roots containing an average of 3-10,6 percent of rubber which could serve as raw material for its production.
Currently kok-saghyz is included in "The Red Data Book of Kazakhstan" as a plant with declining stocks due to the extraction of natural rubber.
Many scientists have conducted studies on the biological characteristics of kok-saghyz ex situ and in situ (Volis et al., 2009; van Dijk et al., 2010; Baitulin et al., 2011; Ametov et al., 2015; Mukhitdinov et al., 2015).
A total of three populations of Taraxacum kok-saghyz L.E.
kok-saghyz contains rubber in latex tubes located in root bark, anatomical features of root were investigated according to the method outlined by Barykina (2004), and comparative analysis of morphometric data depending on the location and population growth was undertaken.
During World War II, the United States created an enormous research program to develop emergency rubber supplies from two plants: guayule (pronounced "gway- OO-lay"), a desert shrub native to northern Mexico, and Taraxacum koksaghyz, the kok-saghyz dandelion.
Kok-saghyz produces rubber-rich latex in its roots, which can be harvested only by uprooting the whole plant.
Soviet scientists were the first to pursue kok-saghyz as a rubber crop, creating a huge network of experimental farms and rubber factories.
In the summer of 1944, the United States ceased all kok-saghyz research, plowing most of that year's crop back into the soil.
But their kok-saghyz project stumbled at the first hurdle.
And according to the little I know about horticulture, Taraxacum
kok-saghyz will be overgrowing in Ohio within the decade.
