A range of other plants can suck up surprising quantities of nickel. These alyssums grow naturally all over the Balkans and Turkey on serpentine soils - soils that are infertile but high in nickel metal. Nickel is used in many common consumer and industrial products, such as stainless steel cutlery, wires and renewable batteries, and the EU produces only 6 % of the world's supply yet uses 18 %. Blossoms from small flowers called yellow tuft alyssum may soon be seen in plots across Europe because, remarkably, these plants are being grown for their nickel.ДЇarmers could in future plant yellow tuft alyssum on infertile soils and earn cash by selling bales to businesses that burn the dried plant for energy and then process the ash, rich in valuable nickel.В Leaves and shoots, which are 1В % nickel when dried, are expected to yield 100 kg of this metal per hectare, as well as bioenergy. Rubber dandelions are not the only surprise you might meet in the countryside when it comes to flowers for industrial materials. There are ongoing field trials in Kazakhstan as part of the project. The plant had been used by the Soviet Union and the US from 1931 to 1950 as a source of rubber, and research continued in Sweden for a short time after World War II. The rubber dandelion originates from a high flat area where China, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan meet. вЂIt wonвЂ™t need the best agricultural fields either and it can be rotated with other crops.вЂ™ вЂIn future I think we will see larger dandelion farms,вЂ™ she added. вЂThereвЂ™s lots of inulin in these plants, 40В % of the dry weight in fact,вЂ™ said Dr van der Meer.ДЇor now, a hectare of rubber dandelion grows around 200 kg of rubber, but the target for the project is 900 kg. Inulin will be broken down into the simple sugar fructose, which can be used to make a biodegradable plastic of the type used in beverage bottles. Dried roots will be shredded and gently heated, until the rubber floats to the top as a sort of sticky gum.ДЇurther treatment also releases another product from the roots - a dietary fibre called inulin. Industrial machines are being built to process the dandelion crop to be harvested this summer. Another aim of DRIVE4EU is to ensure dandelions can be profitable to farmers. Two tyres from dandelions were made by Apollo, a tyre-making company, and displayed last October at a scientific conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.Дandelions are now being selected and bred so their roots can contain 15В % rubber, three times the amount in wild dandelions. The aim is to harvest them for natural rubber and a chemical that can be converted into biodegradable plastic.ДЄ previous project, EU-PEARLS, completed in 2012, showed that the quality of this dandelionвЂ™s rubber was as good as from rubber trees. She coordinates the EU-funded DRIVE4EU project, which is sewing fields of the rubber dandelion ( Taraxacum koksaghyz) вЂ“ also known as the Russian dandelion вЂ“ which looks similar to the bright yellow dandelion seen in gardens. We wanted to find a new source of natural rubber.вЂ™ вЂOne threat to this rubber source is a fungus that already did a lot of damage to plantations in South America. вЂWe are really dependent on the imports of rubber from Southeast Asia,вЂ™ said Dr Ingrid van der Meer, at Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands. One of the answers is for Europe to grow its own rubber, not as trees, but as flowers that are a familiar sight along roadsides вЂ“ dandelions. However, the EU currently imports all of its natural rubber and there are concerns that the trees in Southeast Asia, which accounts for more than 90В % of our supply, can be vulnerable to diseases. This is the same rubber found at the business end of your car tyres and in thousands of other products because natural rubber from trees is still far superior to synthetic rubber in how it absorbs energy and bounces back. When a passenger jet touches down, the rubber that cushions the landing comes from trees grown in Asia.

Dried dandelion flowers