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GUIDE TO WATER PURIFYING PLANTS
You are right. Today we are talking about such an interesting topic as water purification. If we do it by plant means, it is even more interesting. Therefore, this article is dedicated to a series of plants that are capable of improving water quality. They exist and may be available for our garden. Believe it or not, there are a ton of possible applications. 🙂 Watch out for these water purifying plants
To make a short introduction to the article, we are going to mention what macrophytes are . There is no need to beat around the bush, they are “simply” aquatic plants, those capable of living floating or with their roots in the water.
To achieve this, over thousands of years they have managed to adapt in the following way:
- They have developed a thinner skin.
- They have eliminated the functionality of the stomata.
- They create little lignified structures (they do not form many woody parts, of wood).
What interests us from the point of looking for water purifying plants are these, the macrophytes. The importance of this type of plants can be very short without extrapolating a large amount of this type of cultivation in large African rivers that improve the quality of their water. We would be talking about saving thousands of people from disease.
For this reason, this project has already started from the Polytechnic University of Madrid , where the use of aquatic plants and their water filtration capacity is being studied. In addition, it is interesting that some varieties are capable of eliminating, although in small quantities, heavy metals and other elements that are inappropriate for water.
Kind | Involved Process | Contamination Treated |
Phytoextraction | Plants are used to concentrate metals in harvestable parts (leaves and roots) | Cadmium, cobalt, chromium, nickel, mercury, lead, lead selenium, zinc |
Rhizofiltration | Plant roots are used to absorb, precipitate and concentrate heavy metals from contaminated liquid effluents and to degrade organic compounds | Cadmium, cobalt, chromium, nickel, mercury, lead, lead selenium, zinc radioactive isotopes, phenolic compounds |
Phytostabilization | Metal-tolerant plants are used to reduce metal mobility and prevent passage to underground waterways or into the air . | Lagoons for the disposal of mining deposits. Proposed for phenolics and chlorinated compounds. |
Phytostimulation | Root exudates are used to promote the development of degradative microorganisms (bacteria and fungi) | Petroleum derived and polyaromatic hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, atrazine, etc. |
Phytovolatilization | Plants capture and modify heavy metals or organic compounds and release them into the atmosphere with perspiration. | Mercury, selenium, and chlorinated solvents (tetrachloromethane and trichloromethane) |
Fitodegradación | Aquatic and terrestrial plants capture, store and degrade organic compounds to give less toxic or non-toxic by-products. | Ammunition (TNT, DNT, RDX, nitrobenzene, nitrotoluene), atrazine, chlorinated solvents, DDT, phosphate pesticides, phenols and nitriles, etc. |
SOME DRAWBACKS OF WATER PURIFICATION PLANTS
- As we all know, a plant is a vector of both pests and diseases . In this case, when talking about life in water, the spread is very high.
- Areas with high humidity and plants, at the end of the life cycle, decompositions and rotting will occur that will end up smelling bad.
- It depends on where these plants are located, their roots can cause obstructions in the canalization system, pipes, filters and others.
INTERESTING PLANT VARIETIES THAT PERFORM SUCH A FUNCTION
Although there will be many more water purifying plants, sure, we will show you the following:
- Esparto (Stipa tenacissima)
- Juncos (family Juncaceae )
- Papiro (Cyperus papyrus)
- Duckweed ( Lemna minor )
- Vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides)
- Lilies (genus Lilium )
- Carrizo (Phragmites australis)
- Oats ( Avena fatua )
- Water lettuce ( Pistia stratiotes )
Certainly some of these water purifying plants are not ornamentally pretty. It depends on our, for example, if we want to place them in our pond and ask that they offer showy and colorful flowering, or if we need to purify the water above the ornamental aspect,
Phragmites australis . Photography: AnRo0002
Either way, you can always combine all kinds of plants. Those with greater purifying capacity, and those, more ornamental, but with less potential. In the following link you can consult some showy plants that you can incorporate into your pond:
WHAT IF WE DO IT BIG?
Well of course. Not only plants or shrubs give us the opportunity to improve water quality . We can also count on trees. In fact, one of them is considered a great opportunity for those who have difficult availability of water (in Africa, for example). We are talking about the Moringaceae family , a group of 13 rare tree species acclimated to hot and desert areas.
One of these trees is the one with the singing voice, Moringa oleifera. Its seeds have flocculating properties (which group the particles together) as well as coagulants that purify the water and reduce its turbidity.
Applied the seeds at a rate of between 30 and 200 mg / L (FAO) can transform dirty or very dirty water for domestic use. Of course, we are not talking about drinking water, but we are talking about washing dishes, washing animals, floors, etc. In this case we would have to look for a water filter for our safety .
eye! Pay attention to the nutritional properties of this group of water purifying plants:
WHAT IF YOU WANT TO IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF THE AIR INSIDE YOUR HOUSE?
As we already discussed in an article, there are plants that improve the environment and purify the air. One of the best known (but not the only one) is Dracaena marginata. What do you not know how to grow? Easy and simple. Click here ! 🙂
+1 for water purifying plants! 🙂