Surely you have heard that “money does not grow on trees”, but a discovery could disprove the famous phrase. Australian scientists found that some trees of the species Eucalyptus L’Hér are able to capture gold from the subsoil and expel it through its leaves and branchesfor which many call it ‘the Golden Tree’.
The researchers, members of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Organization (CSIRO)shared their conclusions in the specialized magazine Nature Communications.
Eucalyptus trees in the Kalgoorlie region of Western Australia drain gold particles from the soil through their root systems, depositing them on their leaves and branches.
read in the study titled Natural Gold Particles in Eucalyptus Leaves and Their Relevance for the Exploration of Buried Gold Deposits.
The ‘golden tree’ is not exactly a mystery of nature
Scientists claim that this tree can “drain gold particles from the soil, through its conduction system (roots, xylem and phloem), depositing them in its leaves and branches”.
“Like water pumps, eucalyptus trees have roots that can extend tens of meters below ground to absorb water. Therefore, (they also absorb) the gold that is there,” the authors explain.
As gold is probably toxic to the plant, they use a defense mechanism to carry the precious metal particles to their leaves and branches, from which the tree can expel them and spill them back onto the ground.”
detail.
Wait, don’t start seeding coins and jewelry yet
The find dates from 2013, but little has been said about it in the last decade. That is to say, Why didn’t anyone rush to plant Eucalyptus L’Hér in their gardens and pots?
Although it sounds magical and wonderful, the ‘golden tree’ has several limitations. The first is that its load of the precious metal depends on the existence of deposits of it in the subsoil and, furthermore, until now the phenomenon has only been documented in that area of Australia.
On the other hand, it is difficult for someone to become a millionaire growing them, since the gold ‘nuggets’ it expels barely measure a fifth of the diameter of a human hair.
Still, the mineral exploitation companies they could find various possibilities to use the ‘golden tree’ to their advantage. For example, the leaves could indicate deposits of the precious element, buried tens of meters deep and under sediments up to 60 million years old.
“These sheets and soil samples could, when combined with other tools, make the exploration techniques currently in use more respectful of the environment and, above all, less expensive,”
concludes the investigation.
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