Arsenic And Old Brake - brake fern found to absorb and store arsenic from contaminated soils - Brief Article

National Wildlife, June-July, 2001

The latest entry in the junk-foods department: Scientists recently learned that brake ferns can absorb arsenic from contaminated soil and accumulate the deadly substance in their fronds without any harm to the plant. This is the first recorded instance of a plant storing large quantities of arsenic, a potent toxin and carcinogen.

Because brake ferns are fast-growing, hardy and easy to propagate, they show great promise in cleaning up polluted sites cheaply, experts say. Sounds like an environmentally frondly solution.