Plants that mine metal from the ground up

Hyperaccumulate is a vendor-neutral scientific reference of plant species that concentrate metals and metalloids in living tissue to extraordinary levels. Browse eleven elements, trace every figure to a published source, and follow the botanical frontiers of phytoremediation and agromining.

Browse by metal → Open the species table

Browse by metal

Ni Nickel Primary · > 1,000 µg g⁻¹ 20 species Zn Zinc Primary · > 3,000 µg g⁻¹ 7 species Cd Cadmium Primary · > 100 µg g⁻¹ 7 species Co Cobalt Primary · > 300 µg g⁻¹ 4 species Mn Manganese Primary · > 10,000 µg g⁻¹ 6 species REE Rare Earth Elements Primary · > 1,000 µg g⁻¹ ΣREE 3 species Cu Copper Tracked · > 300 µg g⁻¹ 3 species As Arsenic Tracked · > 1,000 µg g⁻¹ 2 species Se Selenium Tracked · > 100 µg g⁻¹ 3 species Tl Thallium Tracked · > 100 µg g⁻¹ 2 species Pb Lead Tracked · > 1,000 µg g⁻¹ 1 species

Counts are derived live from the database. How records are verified →

Landmark accumulators

A Astragalus bisulcatus Fabaceae · North America (western) 14,900 µg g⁻¹ Se · 149× threshold N Noccaea caerulescens Brassicaceae · Western & Central Europe 40,000 µg g⁻¹ Zn · 13.3× threshold P Psychotria douarrei Rubiaceae · New Caledonia 47,500 µg g⁻¹ Ni · 47.5× threshold P Pteris vittata Pteridaceae · Pantropical and subtropical 22,630 µg g⁻¹ As · 22.6× threshold

How a species earns its place

A plant is a hyperaccumulator only when its living above-ground tissue exceeds a defined, element-specific threshold — for nickel, 1,000 µg g⁻¹ dry weight; for cadmium, just 100. Thresholds follow van der Ent et al. (2013). Every record here cites the source of its concentration and carries a verification level, so you can see exactly how firmly each figure is established.

Read the methodology →

From the field

Industry What nickel agromining actually recovers — and what still limits it July 22, 2026

All updates →

Open, citable data

The full species table is available as structured data under CC BY 4.0, with attribution to the cited primary sources. Reuse it, cite it, build on it.

species.json species.csv