by Arjun Walia
Plants have evolved to exclude any metal from their roots or in any of the surrounding soil. Most plants do this, but not a particular plant called the Rinorea Niccolifera. It was discovered in the jungles of the Philippines and can accumulate up to 18,000 ppm of metal in its leaves and roots without being poisoned. This is 100 to 1000 times the amount of metal that normal plants can take in. Researchers at the University of the Phillippines – Los Banos that described the species in a new report also discovered that its ability to eat toxic levels of metals could make the tree a great solution to toxic waste sites around the planet. This is why this discovery is so important.
It is a small tree, normally 1.8 meters tall with a stem ranging from 3 to 13 centimetres in diameter.
You can access the full study HERE.
“Hyper-accumulator plants have great potentials for the development of green technologies, for example, phytoremediation and phytomining,” – Dr. Augustine Doronila, University of Melbourne, senior author of the study.(source)
The study was part of the Program on the Rehabilitation and Restoration of Mining Areas through Phytotechnologies which is funded by the Department of Science and Technology.
The name niccolifera refers to the ability of this species to hyper-accumulate the heavy metal nickel in its stem and leaf tissues.
