A Chinese research team, assisted by a Virginia Tech scientist, has discovered that the Oriental Blechnum fern (common in areas from India to Australia to the South Pacific) is able to grow rare earth elements (REE) in its tissues. The team is based at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Processes and Resources, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This fern (aka Blechnum orientale) is part of a family of plants known as hyperaccumulators, which are able not only to grow in richly metallic soils, but also are able to uptake the minerals and form nanocrystals within their tissues.
“The team identified monazite—an REE phosphate rich in lanthanum, cerium and neodymium—embedded in the outer tissues of living roots. Electron microscopy spotted crystalline nuclei only billionths of a meter across. Chemical signatures match geological monazite, yet the crystals assembled at ambient temperature and pressure, inside a plant,” explained the Mrmengmanchester website. Several scientific websites also covered the discovery, such as Environmental Science & Technology, reprinted by ScienceAlert. “Monazite usually forms in magmatic or metamorphic rocks under intense heat and pressure. Here, a fern appears to coax ions out of soil water, concentrate them and organize them into solid mineral phases. The authors describe a self-organized, out of equilibrium process, reminiscent of a ‘chemical garden,’ where mineral structures take shape spontaneously as gradients drive growth.”
“This discovery reveals an alternative pathway for monazite mineralization under remarkably mild conditions and highlights the unique role of plants in initiating such processes,” wrote the researchers. The research paper was published in Environmental Science & Technology on Nov. 4, 2025.
