Arsenic

Hyperaccumulation threshold: 1,000 µg g⁻¹ [ref] Tracked

Arsenic is a metalloid, and its hyperaccumulation is dominated by ferns, above all Pteris vittata (the brake fern), discovered in 2001 and now a workhorse of arsenic phytoremediation research.

3 species recorded in this database; highest cited value 22,630 µg g⁻¹.

		Metal			Region	Uptake	Verify
Pityrogramma calomelanossilverback fern	Pteridaceae	As Arsenic	8,350	8.3×	Tropical America, pantropical (naturalised)	Obligate	primary
Pteris multifidaSpider brake	Pteridaceae	As Arsenic	4,056	4.1×	China (Guangxi, Guangdong; As-mining areas)	Facultative	primary
Pteris vittataChinese brake fern	Pteridaceae	As Arsenic	22,630	22.6×	Pantropical and subtropical	Obligate	primary

Arsenic news & analysis

Research, industry and conservation context for Arsenic hyperaccumulation and phytoremediation.

Literature

The mercury strategy of the arsenic hyperaccumulator is chemical lock-up, not vacuolar pumping — Pteris vittata stores Hg as β-HgS and glutathione complexes, and its 83 mg/kg shoots leave the hyperaccumulator label deliberately unproven

September 19, 2026 · Wan et al. (2026), Journal of Hazardous Materials

In abandoned mercury mines, the famous arsenic fern Pteris vittata concentrates Hg to 83 mg/kg in shoots — but XANES shows the metal is locked away as solid β-HgS and glutathione complexes, a detox chemistry that stabilizes mercury in roots rather than moving it into harvestable fronds.

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Literature

An AMF-inducible phosphate transporter moves arsenate at the Pteris vittata root–fungus interface

August 29, 2026 · Tian et al. (2026), Soil & Environmental Health 4(4): 100233

PvPht1;6 provides the first in planta evidence that an arbuscular-mycorrhiza-inducible phosphate transporter takes up arsenate at the Pteris vittata root–AMF interface — but whether that arsenic reaches the shoot depends on the host’s own translocation machinery.

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Literature

A moss at Allchar can assay 25,000 µg g⁻¹ arsenic and still not be accumulating it — most is soil dust

August 7, 2026 · Jakovljević et al. (2026), Planta

Bryophytes on the world's richest arsenic–thallium soils assay up to ~2.5% arsenic in their tissue, but crustal-element tracers, electron microscopy and an apolar-solvent wash show most of it is mineral dust stuck to the surface — a warning that hyperaccumulation screened on unwashed near-source tissue is inflated, with genuine uptake modest and strongest for thallium in a single moss.

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