Like Teenage "Head Bangers," Some Plants Like Heavy Metal Too!
Some
people think playing soft, peaceful music to their plants will get them to grow
taller and healthier. But don't play that stuff around plants with names like
ragweed or Alpine pennycress. They like Heavy Metal .
Rufus Chaney (below, middle) is a
scientist in Beltsville, Maryland, who studies these metal-hungry plants,
called hyper accumulators.
Long ago, European prospectors used these
shrubs as a sign that metals lay hidden beneath the soil. Today, Chaney and
other scientists want to use plants like pennycress to clean up soils contaminated with heavy metals.
How do they plan to use them? Hyper accumulator plants
don't actually eat metals. Duh. So, how do
they clean up soil?
Why do these plants do this? (Pick all that apply.)
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A) | Scientists believe it makes the plants less tasty to hungry insects. |
| B) | It makes them more valuable. | |
| C) | It may help them fight off diseases. | |
| D) | It prolongs their blooming season. |
Plants like
pennycress or ragweed take a long time to suck up metals. But Chaney and other
scientists think they can speed things up. They are working with certain genes
in the plant.These genes tell or instruct the plant how to store toxic metals
without getting sick.
Scientists are now working to place copies of these genetic instructions into bigger, faster growing plants, like mustard seed or hay.
That way, a crop of these plants could be grown, harvested, and then burnt so the metal can be taken out.
—By Jan Suszkiw, Agricultural Research Service, Information Staff
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