New Species of Nickel Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines
Posted on May 9, 2014
A new species of metal-eating plant has been discovered in the Philippines. The plant absorbs nickel in very high amounts. Scientists from the University of the Philippines, Los Banos found the plant, Rinorea niccolifera, accumulates up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without itself being poisoned.
This is a hundred to a thousand times higher than most plants. Only 450 plant species throughout the world are known to have the nickel hyperaccumulation.
Dr .Augustine Doronila of the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, a co-author of the report, says, "Hyperacccumulator plants have great potentials for the development of green technologies, for example, 'phytoremediation' and 'phytomining'" Phytoremediation involves using hyperacccumulator plants to remove heavy metals in contaminated soils.
The research was published here in PhytoKeys.