Scientists Discover Nickel-Eating Plant Species 57
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.'"
Sounds like a defense mechanism. (Score:5, Interesting)
In either event, I wonder if the concentration of nickel in these plants is sufficiently high to make farming them a productive mining activity?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sounds like a defense mechanism. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.