To brighten up a grey and rainy day, I've been looking through some of the wildflower photos I took this summer. Amongst them I came across this shot of spring sandwort (Minuartia verna) growing on spoil from an old lead mine in Cressbrook Dale, Derbyshire.
According to The Lead Legacy:
Locally known as leadwort, the species has the capacity to uptake and store quite high concentrations of heavy metals without any severe impairment of growth (it has been shown to absorb as much as 7500 ppm zinc and 500 ppm of lead).
Spring sandwort is one of four 'metallophytes' which thrive in the waste left over from the exploitation of Derbyshire's mineral veins. The other species are alpine penny-cress (Thlapsi caerulescens), Pyrenean scurvy grass (Cochlearia pyrenaica) and mountain pansy (Viola lutea).
Recent Comments