Scientists Find A Fern That Accumulates Rare Earth Elements Needed For Batteries And Green Technology

World powers are scrambling to get their hands on more rare earth elements to build clean energy infrastructure, batteries, and all kinds of high-tech wizardry. If only they grew on trees! Well, in a sense, they do. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

For the first time, scientists from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry in China have identified a plant that naturally forms nanocrystals of monazite containing rare earth elements.

It's a type of fern called Blechnum orientale that's native to the tropical forest biomes of Asia and the Pacific region. In parts of Guangzhou in southern China, where rare earth elements are naturally abundant in the soil, the plant acts as a hyperaccumulator, sucking up significant qua