the trees that feed on metal

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 On the island of New Caledonia in the south pacific there has been made an interesting discovery. The discovery is a tree called Pycnandra acuminata which bleeds a bright blue-green substance when cut. The substance contains up to 25% nickel which is very poisonous to most plants in actually really small amounts. If these kind of metal-containing plants are dried and burned to ash they give a high-grade metal ore, which uses much less energy than needed in standard mining and produces far less pollution. 

It's not very likely for it to fully replace conventional mining but it could help clean up soils poluted with toxic metals, and I think taht this little dicovery is really interesting because we don't really know why some plants feed on such metals and don't kill themselves with it. It is thought that they probably use it as a way to protect themselves against insects and fungal infections. In my opinion it would be great if we could use this ability for a good cause for example to help the enviornment a little. 


source:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/apr/21/plantwatch-the-trees-that-feed-on-metal

Komentarze

  1. englishdiary27 kwietnia 2021 22:59

    Fascinating! I wonder if there are plants consuming lead. They could be planted along motorways to clean the soil there.

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