Some ancient legends say that there are plants that can help in the search for treasures. As a rule, such legends are destroyed over time under the onslaught of scientific knowledge. But sometimes it happens that the discoveries of scientists turn out to be more fantastic than any myth. Treasure hunting plants turned out to be one of these revived beliefs
All plants are very sensitive to substances contained in the soil. But they react in different ways: some begin to grow magnificently, covered with a thick cap of leaves, while others get sick, sometimes taking on an ugly appearance. Sometimes it is enough to look at the plant to understand what substances are contained in the earth.
Everyone knows that nettles and horsetails prefer to settle on acidic soil. And resin and cotton love calcium, and therefore live in chalky areas, they are called so - "calcephilous plants".
Wormwood, being a fairly tall plant, getting on the soil with a high boron content, acquires a dwarf growth. Mallow petals become narrowly dissected if the plant lives on the surface of copper or molybdenum deposits.
Some plants, by their presence, already report the content of one or another deposit in the soil. With the help of some cloves, it is possible to detect mercury, and representatives of the primrose family point to tin deposits. Leaves of meadowsweet and cinquefoil become reddish-brown if copper deposits are in the soil.
In the 20th century, a special branch of science even appeared - indicator geobotany, which studies the relationships between certain plants and mineral deposits.
How do plants learn about a particular deposit of minerals, if they lie at a great depth from the soil surface? It turns out that it's all about the groundwater circulating in the bowels of the Earth. They often carry many chemical compounds to its surface, which become available to plants.
Each plant reacts differently to the content of some chemical compound in the soil, therefore, there are no firm rules by which one could search for ore deposits. But there are among the plants and universal "treasure hunters", such as the violet. This plant prefers to live in soils rich in zinc.
Some chemical elements cause the phenomenon of gigantism in plants, and some, on the contrary, lead to the formation of dwarf forms.
A number of radioactive substances contained in the soil lead to a color change in plants. So the leaves of the plum, which grows near the uranium ore deposit, acquire a pale green color with a rusty tint. Sometimes, in places of deposits of radioactive elements in plants, various mutations occur, which contribute to the formation of abnormal shapes of branches and leaves.
The study of indicator plants has allowed scientists to discover many mineral deposits. And who knows how many more amazing and incomprehensible secrets are kept by plants …
