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
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
Of course you can prove a negative. In one sense this can be the easiest thing in the world : your theory predicts something which doesn...
-
Where Americans think Ukraine is These are the guesses of 2066 Americans as to where Ukraine is. Only 1 in 6 were correct. Presumably the... -
Hmmm. [The comments below include a prime example of someone claiming they're interested in truth but just want higher standard, where...
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.