Researchers discovered a plant that feasts on nickel.
The plant can hold up to 18,000 ppm of nickel in its leaves without experiencing the harmful effects of the metal, a Pensoft news release reported.
This concentration of nickel is a hundred to a thousand times higher than in most plants.
The new species is dubbed Rinorea niccolifera after its ability to absorb remarkably high levels of nickel without side effects.
"This species is most similar to the widespread Rinorea bengalensis by its fasciculate inflorescences and smooth subglobose fruits with [three] seeds, but it differs by its glabrous ovary with shorter style ([five millimeters] long), the summit of the staminal tube sinuate to entire and the outer surface smooth, generally smaller leaves... and smaller fruits ," the study authors said in the PhytoKeys report.
Nickel hyperaccumulation is an extremely rare phenomenon in nature, only between 0.5 and one percent of plants that naturally live in nickel-rich soil have this ability, the news release reported.
Only 450 plant species across the globe are known to absorb unusually high levels of metal; this is compared to 300,000 species of vascular plants that do not absorb the metal in high levels.
The newly-discovered plant was found on the "western part of Luzon Island in the Philippines," the news release reported. This region is known for having soil that contains high levels of nickel and other metals.
"Hyperacccumulator plants have great potentials for the development of green technologies, for example, 'phytoremediation' and 'phytomining'", explains Doctor Augustine Doronila of the School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, who is also co-author of the report, said in the news release.
Phytoremediation is when researchers use hyperacccumulator plants to suck up heavy metals from contaminated soil. Phytomining, is when the plants are used to collect commercially beneficial metals from the soil.
"The field surveys and laboratory work of the scientists are part of the research project funded by the Department of Science and Technology - Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DOST-PCIEERD)," the news release reported.
