Abstract
The application of flowering plants is the basis of urban forest construction. A newly-found flowering hyperaccumulator is crucial for remediating urban contaminated soil sustainably by cadmium (Cd). This study evaluated growth responses, Cd uptake and bioaccumulation characteristics of seven urban flowering plants. Based on growth responses of these plants, Calendula officinalis L. showed high tolerance to at least 100 mg kg−1 Cd, in terms of significant increase in biomass and with no obvious changes in height. After 60 d exposure to 100 mg kg−1 Cd, the accumulated Cd in shoots of the plant reached 279.51 ± 13.67 μg g−1 DW, which is above the critical value defined for a hyperaccumulator (100 μg g−1 DW for Cd). Meanwhile, the plant could accumulate Cd to as much as 926.68 ± 29.11 μg g−1 DW in root and 1206.19 ± 23.06 μg g−1 DW in plant, and had higher Cd uptake and bioaccumulation values. According to these traits, it is shown that Calendula officinalis L. can become a potential Cd-hyperaccumulator for phytoremediation. By contrast, Dianthus caryophyllus L. is very sensitive to Cd stress in terms of significantly decreased biomass, height and Cd uptake, indicating the plant is considered as a Cd-bioindicator.
Highlights
Reached 101.77 ± 3.31, 161.64 ± 5.13, 113.54 ± 6.87 and 279.51 ± 13.67 μg g−1 DW, respectively, which is above the critical value defined for the hyperaccumulator
Seeds of Calendula officinalis L. are rich in calendic acid, which can substitute for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) as a drying agent in many industrial chemicals [81,82]
VOCs are growing, Calendula officinalis L. may serve as an attractive oil crop for promoting sustainable urban development
Summary
Heavy metal (HMs) contamination is commonly associated with the rapid development of urbanization, industrialization, manufacturing and mining, which pose an increasing threat to human health and eventually destroying the sustainable development of ecological environment [9,10,11,12,13]. Among these HMs, cadmium (Cd) is considered as one of the most toxic pollutants [14,15,16,17,18,19,20].
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