Accumulation and tolerance of soil cadmium contamination by Millet (Pennisetum glaucum), Lambsquarter (Chenopodium album), Flix weed (Descurainia Sophi) and purslane (Portulaca oleracea)

In this paper, potential for Cd tolerance, uptake and accumulation by native population of millet (Pennisetum glaucum), lambsquarter (Chenopodium album), flix weed (Descurainia Sophi) and purslane (Portulaca oleracea) in Western Azerbaijan region was studied in a soil spiked with 0, 20, 60 and 100 mg Cd kg-1 soil. The plants were grown in pots containing the contaminated soil. Plants shoots were harvested at the end of their flowering stage. Dry above-ground biomass, Cd concentration in plant shoot, and total Cd removal from soil by plants (MECd) were measured. Results showed that with increasing the soil Cd concentration, shoot biomas of millet and purslane decreased significantly (P≤0.05). However, this reduction, in spite of existance, was not statistically significant for purslane and flix weed. Comparing with other studied plants, lambsquarter and flix weed, with 25% yield reduction in applied range of soil Cd concentrations, were the most tolerant plants to Cd stress. Studied plants did not accumulate high concentrations of Cd, so that, maximum metal concentration in millet, lambsquarter, flix weed, and purslane was about 19, 6, 16, 16 mg kg-1 dry matter, respectively. However, applying lambsquarter and flix weed, would be promising for removal of low levels of Cd from contaminated soils because of producing relatively high biomass and medium metal concentration in plant.