This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English AgricultureReport.

Sunflower plants grow tall andproduce a beautiful flower. The seeds are good to eat and produce ahigh quality oil for cooking. But scientists in the United Stateshope that sunflowers will also become known for their rubber.

The scientists are attempting to improve the quality and amountof latex from sunflower plants. Latex is made of rubber particles,water and other plant substances. It is a higher value product thansolid rubber.

The scientists believe that sunflowers could reduce America'sdependence on imported natural rubber and rubber made from oilproducts. The United States imports more than one-million tons ofnatural rubber each year.

Katrina Cornish is an expert on how plants produce rubber. Sheworks for the Agriculture Department in its Agricultural ResearchService office in Albany, California.

Katrina Cornish notes that more than two-thousand-five-hundredkinds of plants produce natural latex. But she says few have thequalities that scientists want. Most plants are too small or growtoo slowly. Others do not produce enough latex. Or the latex theyproduce is not good enough.

Sunflowers are large and grow quickly. Currently, latex producedfrom sunflowers is not good enough to be used to make productsbecause of the quality and amount. However, the scientists hope toimprove the situation in the future through genetic engineering.

Katrina Cornish and her team are experimenting with severaldifferent kinds of sunflowers. She is working with scientists fromColorado State University and Ohio State University. They areinterested in the kinds of plants that produce the highest amountsof latex in stems and leaves. They are working with sunflower plantsthat grow in northern areas where most of the American sunflowercrop is grown.

The scientists also work with other kinds of plants. One is theguayule [why-YOU-lee]. This is a desert plant native to the AmericanSouthwest. Katrina Cornish says Native Americans chewed the plant toremove latex for rubber balls and other goods. She says earlyautomobile tires were made with guayule.

Last year a company working with her team opened a processingcenter. Guayule products will be made for people who get a severehealth reaction to gloves and other goods made of other kinds ofnatural latex.

This VOA Special English Agriculture Report was written by GeorgeGrow. This is Steve Ember.