Abstract

This report summarizes literature data on the accumulation of rare earth metals (RE) in plants, as a part of the investigation of data on the transfer of rare earth metals in the chain artificial fertilizers - soil - crops - livestock and man. The concentration and accumulation in plants can differ as a consequence of both plant factors and soil factors. The concentrations in plants (dry weight) of RE are in general low: < 0.2 mg/kg for root- and leaf vegetables, < 0.05 mg/kg in most fruits and < 1 mg/kg in herbs/grasses. Bioconcentration factors (BCF) for RE are usually within the range of 0.001 to 0.1 for feed crops and 0.0001 to 0.01 for food crops, indicating a low accumulation potential, especially in food crops.