Cadmium phytoextraction potential of different Alyssum species

This work was planned for providing useful information about the possibility of using serpentine adapted plants for phytoextraction of cadmium, element scarcely represented in such metalliferous environment. To this aim, we investigated variation in cadmium tolerance, accumulation and translocation in three Alyssum plants with different phenotypes: Alyssum bertolonii, that is a serpentine endemic nickel hyper-accumulator, and two populations of Alyssum montanum, one adapted and one not adapted to serpentine soils.