Phytoremediation: What Works

[Justin Boland]

BY POLLUTANT
Aluminum: Arabidopsis thaliana - "thale cress," most strains Barley
Arsenic: Pteris vittata - "brake fern"
Benzene: Alfalfa
Cadmium: Thlaspi carulescens - "Alpine Pennycress," Brassica juncea - "indian mustard," Helianthus anuus - "Sunflowers Yo,"
Chlorine: Water Hyacinth
Ethyl Benzene: Alfalfa
PCB: Poplars, Mulberry, Osage Orange
Radiocesium: Amaranthus retroflexus - "Pigweed"
Zinc: Thlaspi carulescens - "Alpine Pennycress"

BY PLANT
Allium ursinum - "wild garlic," potent disinfectant.
Arabidopsis thaliana - "thale cress," sucks up aluminum.
Amaranthus retroflexus - "Pigweed," works for radioactive cesium.
Brassica juncea - "indian mustard," works for cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc.
Helianthus annuus - "Sunflowers," works for cadmium, copper, lead, nickel and zinc.
Pteris vittata - "brake fern," works for arsenic.
Thalia dealbata - "A most robust perennial macrophyte,"
Thlaspi carulescens - "Alpine Pennycress," works for cadmium and zinc.

Work in progress, more data, pics, links on the way.

SOURCES
Plants for a Future's "Pollution" dataset: http://www.ibiblio.org/pfaf/cgi-bin/fin ... =Pollution
"Suck It Up" -- http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/whsuckitup.htm
Dynamic Nutrient Accumulators for composting: http://www.oregonbd.org/Class/accum.htm

[bio_signs]

You may be interested to know that I am investigating methods for enhancing phytoremediation of lead-contaminated soils by ryegrass and corn. The results so far are promising. This is important since there doesn't seem to be any natural hyperaccumulators of Pb. Hopefully my lab's research will add a few more plants and heavy metals to the list! Cheers!

[Justin Boland]

Exceptionally interested, yes. Thank you for the update and please do keep us posted.

[jstorvick]

Someone posted this on Twitter, I think it was @biohabit...

PhytoPet - A Database of Plants that Play a Role in the Phytoremediation of Petroleum Hydrocarbons:

http://www.phytopet.usask.ca/mainpg.php

Its a pretty comprehensive database of individual plant information and experimental data in cleaning soils that have been contaminated by PHCs.

Information Contained in the PhytoPet© Database

Summary Information
Common name of plant
Scientific name of plant
Cultivar, strain, or code
Hydrocarbon of interest
Phytoremediation potential
Mechanism of phytoremediation
Interaction of plant and hydrocarbon
Microbial associations with plant

Experimental Data
Research objective
Type of study (laboratory or field)
Duration of experiment
Experimental conditions
Age of plant at first exposure
Initial concentration of contaminant
Post-experiment concentration and/or conditions
Fertility/management practices
Storage sites in plant
Additional notes
Reference

Plant specific Data
Common & scientific names
Synonym
Family
Phytoremediation potential
Growth habit
Morphology
Life cycle
Primary habitat
Habitat description
Salinity tolerance
World range
North American occurrence
Western Canadian occurrence
Cultural information
Impact description
Natural history notes
Other species in genus
Additional notes
References

Pretty cool stuff, and incredibly useful info.

[RomanyX]

How about mycoremediation?

http://www.fungi.com/mycotech/mycova.html