Scientists Discover Nickel-Eating Plant Species

An anonymous reader writes "A new species of metal-eating plant has been discovered in the Philippines, and the plant loves to eat nickel. From the article: 'Scientists from the University of the Philippines, Los Baños have discovered Rinorea niccolifera, a plant species that accumulates up to 18,000 ppm of the metal in its leaves without poisoning itself, according to Edwino Fernando, lead author of the report and professor, said in a statement. Fernando and his team say that the hyper-accumulation of nickel is a very rare phenomenon, with only about 0.5 percent to 1 percent of plant species native to environments with nickel-rich soil.'"

Comments

Sounds like a defense mechanism.

[mmell]

I am assuming that the concentration of nickel in the plant is high enough to make it unpleasant to herbivores, possibly even toxic. Of course, it could merely be an adaptation to take advantage of environments which other plants have difficulty with.

In either event, I wonder if the concentration of nickel in these plants is sufficiently high to make farming them a productive mining activity?

Re:Sounds like a defense mechanism.

[DigiShaman]

It's called phytomining. Primary used in the extraction of gold when available.

Re:Sounds like a defense mechanism.

[Intrepid imaginaut]

I'd imagine you'd probably only get a couple of harvests before the soil loses all of its ore too. Genetically engineered seaweed to extract metals from seawater, now that might be a longer term prospect.