SpankyDanky

Thanks guys. John Cuthber, that's about where I'm at now is finding plants first, then checking into their accumulator status. And it's mainly humans we're worried about, lord knows just about everything gets munched on in nature. And ACME, I'll definitely give that a read! May be just the starting place I'm looking for.

I'm currently working on my undergraduate research project, looking at plant-microbe interactions in the phytoremediation of bisphenol-A from the ground. Basically looking at if and how different bacteria will effect a given plants ability to pull BPA out of the soil. So, past research at the university has used bean plants for experimenting, except bean plants are edible. It really doesn't make sense to collect data on a plant we could never use in actual applications, for risk of humans or animals eating them and all the BPA they've accumulated. Needless to say we're looking for a new model organism. I've been cross referencing known hyperaccumulators to local vendors (we're trying to keep the species local to Western NY as well), but have turned up scratch. Does anyone know what are some traits that would make a plant a good hyperaccumulator (ability to uptake lots of toxic garbage or metals)? I would imagine plants that grow in not so sanitary areas may be good candidates, but there's no literature on the subject whatsoever.