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Certain varieties of fern have developed a taste for arsenic-the murder weapon of choice during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as well as in Agatha Christie novels. The deadly metalloid can cause cancer, diabetes, thickening of the skin, liver disease, and digestive disorders with prolonged exposure, even in minute amounts. To these ferns, however, it might as well be manna from heaven.
If you have pressure-treated wood that predates 2004 in your yard, whether it's from your outdoor deck, playground set, or garden planter, your soil could be contaminated with arsenic. Lumber back then was primed with chromated copper arsenate (CCA) to stave off insect damage and decay, which is well and good, except that CCA can also leach arsenic from the treated wood into the surrounding dirt.But back to those ferns: In a study published in the February 2001 issue of the journal Nature (PDF), researchers from the University of Florida discovered that the fern Pteris vittata, also known as the Chinese brake fern, extracted significant amounts of arsenic from the soil-or more specifically, 200 times more arsenic than any other plant did-and into its roots and fronds. The same team later noted other arsenic-loving species in the same genus, but only Pteris vittata has been licensed for commercial sale.
A Virginia-based company known as Edenspace now owns the patent for the ferns, marketing them under the moniker "Edenfern." Because most of the arsenic concentrates in the fronds of the plant, harvested fronds, says Edenspace, should be stored in a plastic bag or other watertight container and then disposed with regular trash or as hazardous waste.
Tip: If you'd like to test your soil for arsenic first, you can purchase arsenic test kits at the Health Building Network and the Environmental Working Group.
See also: ::Detox Your Home: Grow Fresh Air with Houseplants
Difficulty level: Easy
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