Heavy metals like nickel and zinc are usually the last thing that plants want to grow next to in high concentrations. But a specialised group, known as hyperaccumulators, have evolved to take up the normally toxic metals into their stems, leaves and even seeds.
Researchers have been studying Pycnandra acuminata in particular - a tree that grows on the island of New Caledonia in the south Pacific. They think it may use the nickel to defend against insects. Its latex has an unusual blue-green colour as it contains up to 25% nickel.
"Pycnandra acuminata is a large (up to 20m tall) rare rainforest tree, restricted to remaining patches of rainforest in New Caledonia," says Dr Antony van der Ent, a researcher at the University of Queensland who has been studying the tree.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45398434
Sister blog of Physicists of the Caribbean in which I babble about non-astronomy stuff, because everyone needs a hobby
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Review : Pagan Britain
Having read a good chunk of the original stories, I turn away slightly from mythological themes and back to something more academical : the ...
-
"To claim that you are being discriminated against because you have lost your right to discriminate against others shows a gross lack o...
-
I've noticed that some people care deeply about the truth, but come up with batshit crazy statements. And I've caught myself rationa...
-
For all that I know the Universe is under no obligation to make intuitive sense, I still don't like quantum mechanics. Just because some...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Due to a small but consistent influx of spam, comments will now be checked before publishing. Only egregious spam/illegal/racist crap will be disapproved, everything else will be published.