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A metallophyte is a plant that can tolerate high levels of heavy metals such as lead. Such plants range between "obligate metallophytes" (which can only survive in the presence of these metals), and "facultative metallophytes" which can tolerate such conditions but are not confined to them.CRC dictionary of agricultural sciences, Robert Alan Lewis, CRC Press, 2001,
European examples include alpine pennycress ( Thlaspi caerulescens), the zinc violet ( Viola calaminaria), spring sandwort ( Minuartia verna), sea thrift ( Armeria maritima), Cochlearia, common bent ( Agrostis capillaris), Dover catchfly ( Silene paradoxa) and plantain ( Plantago lanceolata). Ecosystems of Disturbed Ground, Lawrence R Walker, Elsevier, 1999, Few metallophytes are known from Latin America.
Metallophytes commonly exist as specialised flora found on spoil heaps of mines.
Such plants have potential for use in phytoremediation of contaminated ground.
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