Core Bio                                                                                              Yasmeen Fahr

Current Event                                                                                               5.21.14

Pensoft Publishers. "New species of metal-eating plant discovered in the Philippines." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 9 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140509130040.htm>.

            For my current event, I read an article titled “New Species of Metal-Eating Plant Discovered in the Philippines.” As explained in the title, scientists have discovered a new species of plant named Rinorea Niccolifera that, strangely enough, feeds off of Nickel. Professor Edwino Fernando notes that this plant can ingest up to 18,000 ppm without being poisoned. This plant’s strange ability is found to be incredibly unique, with only about 450 of the 300,000 plant species displaying it. This plant has been placed under the category “hyperaccumulators” which are plants that live in soil with a high concentration of metal.

            The discovery of this plant is extremely important because it shows scientists where they should look for new plant species and gives them hints as to what these undiscovered plant species might be like. For example, now that this new species has been discovered, scientists might begin to look for more hyperaccumulators that perhaps ingest a different metal, or that ingest the same metal in higher concentrations. The possibilities are endless.

            I found this article very interesting and well written, but a bit sparse in information. The topic was extremely interesting but with limited data and facts on it. Otherwise, the article was very informative and overall a great read!