3 ms·
Why is it that S. viminalis and other mentioned Salix species are so effective at this? Is it that the Salix genus is more effective or are more genuses (geni?)
by c54 4y ago
Why is it that S. viminalis and other mentioned Salix species are so effective at this? Is it that the Salix genus is more effective or are more genuses (geni?) also effective but just haven't been studied yet?
- culi 4y ago> genuses (geni?) genera But good question. There's actually been a ton of plants identified as "hyperaccumulators" (which is distinguished from regular "accumulators") of various heavy metals. You can actually find a good list on Wikipedia[0] organized by the contaminant. There's entire journals dedicated to this research. If you peruse that Wikipedia list you'll see Salix spp in general listed as being a noted accumulator of a large variety of contaminants. Given that there's over 400 species of willows though I doubt this holds uniformally for all species and I also doubt that all 400 species have been rigorously tested for their phytoremediative potential. Common osier (aka S. viminalis) is a common tree in Europe so it's likely that it's just a readily available type species to study [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hyperaccumulators https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hyperaccumulators
- hyperman1 4y agoI once heard willow was used as an important component of the medieval land reclamation projects. The tree was good at sucking out and evaporating water, and grows quickly. It was used to turn overly wet land into usable farmland. Maybe that same mechanism helps here? If it pulls out water, and the water is contaminated, the willow evaporates the water and keeps the contaminants.