So at first glance that phrase the title of this article doesn’t make much sense but bear with me. It turns out that Continental Tires has been looking at finding a substitute for traditional rubber that grows on (OK, in) trees. You might be thinking that modern tires for motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc. are made from synthetics but the natural rubber content in some tires is as high as one-third of the overall rubber material.
Rubber trees grow in relatively narrow ranges of climate and those areas on our little planet are easily affected by the increasing threat of climate change in both the temperature kind as well as the geo-political kind of climate. Recently Continental tested a type of latex that comes from the Russian Dandelion plant and the results appear to be very promising. Hit the link below to learn more about how you might be carving up twisty roads in the future using flowers for traction.
http://arstechnica.com/cars/2016/10/the-secret-ingredient-in-continentals-future-tires-dandelions/
