Josh Clark

It's up there.

Maybe they're all tied for first.

I don't know.

Hey, that means we've got a good topic if there are several competitors.

So not just any dandelion produces rubber or latex that can be turned into rubber.

A specific type of dandelion, they figured out the Kazakh dandelion, which is native to the Eurasian steppes.

How'd you like that?

It's also called the Russian dandelion here in the United States.

That specific one puts out enough latex that it gave rubber trees a run for their money during World War II, which we've talked about many times.

America and Britain were like, we need more rubber for the war effort.

And the Japanese control essentially all of the rubber supply.

We're at war with the Japanese, so we better come up with something else quick.

Yeah.

So they literally started screening like thousands and thousands of plants.

And I guess they were like, hey, if the rubber tree can grow rubber, there's got to be something else out there.

The Soviets are the ones who said, try this Kazakh dandelion.

And because of shortages during the wars, they said, here, here's a bunch of seeds.

And they sent a bunch of those Kazakh seeds, the Soviet allies at the time in the 1940s.

And ultimately, we use some of it.

Russians, Americans and Germans did produce rubber from dandelions.