Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

rate this answer

Thursday - April 19, 2012
From: St. Louis , MO
Region: Midwest
Topic: General Botany, Plant Lists
Title: Phytoremediation Plant List for St. Louis MO
Answered by: Brigid & Larry Larson
QUESTION:
My goal is to transform urban blight plots (some up to 1/4 acre) into viable community gardens having healthy, living soil as their foundation. To this end I am researching phytoremediation (thanks to ATTRA), which means a lot of different brassica, and "nasties sucking" plants. Question: do you have a list of such -pytoremediation- plants? Or are you able to give recommendation for a pytoremediating flower garden? Thank you for your time.ANSWER:
Mr Smarty Plants thanks you for that question, it gave me the opportunity to research the topic just a bit and collect some information for you.
Unfortunately, the short and true answer to your question is “No”, we do not have a list of phytoremediating plants. I was able to collect some references, of which I hope at least some are new or useful for you.
It’s clear our government is interested. I found a good article by the USDA and two from the EPA. The plant mentioned in the USDA article, Thlaspi caerulescens, is Alpine Pennycress, its status as a native is unsure. This reference is the EPA's "Citizens Guide" and this one is a news story on the use of phytoremediation to clean up waste sites. I also found a bibliography and listserv at Kansas State University, this should be very helpful both for ongoing discussions, archives and perhaps even to post questions!
Rather than giving you a list of phytoremediating plants, I can suggest to you that the lists we do have is of plants that are native to your area. Here is our list of recommended species for Missouri. What you could do is review this list for plants that might be useful for your purpose; you can expect plants on our lists to thrive under normal circumstances.
I also found a number of previous Mr Smarty Plants answers to more specific phytoremediation questions. This answer was directed towards Lead removal with brassicas, but lists some natives with those properties. This one had additional resources. Here is a later answer concerning lead and other heavy metals and here is a question concerning VOC removal from air. Finally, here is another answer with a good list of resources.
I hope, rather than a flat “No” this give you a little more to work with!
From the Image Gallery
More General Botany Questions
What shade trees have non-invasive root systems?
March 03, 2015 - What shade trees have a non-invasive root system? I am in zone 7a. Thank you, Mr. Smarty Plants!
view the full question and answer
Geographic determination of flower colors
August 30, 2009 - Hi Mr. Smarty Plants,
I'd like to find out if there are any correlation between geographic location and the statistic of flower(native) colors. Here in the Rockies, there seems to be a lot more ye...
view the full question and answer
Are Chickasaw plums evergreen?
August 13, 2014 - Are Chickasaw Plums evergreens? I've been very interested in planting a few but some websites say they are evergreens while others say the opposite. Furthermore, would I have to plant a male and fema...
view the full question and answer
Native plants that will grow under alleopathic black walnut
March 03, 2007 - I have a large, beautiful black walnut tree in my yard and have trouble growing the annuals, begonia, impatients, etc., that I have always grown. They don't do well in the ground and I have resorted...
view the full question and answer
Plants named for Thomas Drummond
February 09, 2009 - Dear Mr. Smarty Plants, Please send list of plants discovered and named for Thomas Drummond.
view the full question and answer
Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today. |