Pennycress – a small plant with a hidden power
Well we are pleased to introduce you in today’s post to Thlaspi! Also known as pennycress, Thlaspi is a member of the Brassica family. Members of this family include the edible vegetables cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and many other edible cruciferous plants. And you may have heard of Arabidopsis from the same family, a commonly used model species for studying plant genetics. ⠀
One of the most amazing things about Thlaspi species is that they are hyper-accumulators of heavy metals. They thrive in soils that have high levels of metal contamination, but they can actually extract (accumulate) the heavy metals into their roots, thus removing the metals from the soil. This pictures shows Thlaspi growing in a “no-man’s land” of contaminated soil, where no other plants could survive. Aren’t plants amazing?⠀