Phytodepurative plants
Brief subtitle
At Orticolario 2024, we will discuss plants for phytodepuration: we will learn about their properties, their modes of “action,” and the infinite possibilities of restoring what is polluted. We will rely on their transformative abilities to imagine a nature less contaminated by humans.
Phytodepuration, let’s start with its meaning. And to do that, we turn to the most common dictionaries, where you can read: the use of plants to retain, degrade, and remove pollutants from soil and water, from organic compounds to hydrocarbons, to heavy metals. Depending on the type of contaminant and plant species, various phytodepuration systems can occur. One of these is phytoextraction, a biochemical and biomechanical process through which plants extract pollutants – even highly aggressive ones, such as heavy metals – immobilizing them in roots and leaves. Another mechanism implemented is phytorhizodegradation, which involves the biodegradation carried out by plants in collaboration with the rhizosphere, the soil part surrounding the roots, essential for their growth and populated by symbiotic microorganisms, beneficial and pathogenic bacteria, fungi: in this case, organic contaminants are transformed into non-harmful substances and gradually absorbed by soil organisms.
There are other phytodepuration processes, but regardless of how they occur, it is the role of plants that surprises us: sentinels that not only intercept the pollutant but also counteract it. Clearly, not all plants have this ability: the United States Department of Agriculture has identified over 400 species suitable for phytodepuration of water and soil. Among these, there are some very common ones, also used in home gardens. An example? Cabbage, turnip, sunflower, and corn contribute to eliminating the presence of chromium and nickel. Ferns assimilate zinc, selenium, lead, cesium, cadmium, and nickel, while poplars and willows can trace and eliminate the so-called hard metals, mostly formed by carbides. Furthermore, the phytodepuration capacities of hemp are decidedly extraordinary: it can absorb cesium radioisotopes, zinc, and heavy metals, and, thanks to roots that can reach up to one meter in depth, it can remediate large areas in a short time.
Among the numerous water phytodepuration plants, the marshy Canna indica with orange flowers, cultivated in the Andean regions for over 4,500 years, is used for the phytodepuration of agricultural wastewater. And Iris, how not to mention them: the rhizome of several species (Iris pseudacorus, Iris louisiana, Iris versicolor) absorbs and accumulates heavy metals.
This is what we will observe at Orticolario 2024. And at the end of the visit, we will leave the gates of Villa Erba with a grain of additional knowledge. Increasingly aware of what plants can do: for the environment, for humans, and to restore balance in Nature. The balance that is often broken and trampled by our actions.
¹ “The Army of Lost Rivers” by Paolo Sgorlon, 1985
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