USING PLANT TISSUE CULTURE TO DEVELOP PLANTS WITH ACID SOIL, HEAVY METAL TOLERANCE (AHMT), POTENTIALLY USEFUL FOR HARD-ROCK MINE LAND RECLAMATION

Our objective for this project was to determine if we could find, collect, and tissue culture local native plants which grow directly on acid, heavy metal contaminated (AHM) soil. These plants are potentially useful for mine land reclamation and may possess acid soil, heavy metal tolerance. Explants (small actively growing plant tissue segments) were collected from fifteen plant species growing directly on degraded sites heavily impacted from past hard rock mining activities in Western Montana. These plants, when collected were rooted, surviving and growing in soils characterized by very low soil pH (about 4.0) and high concentrations of various heavy metals. Of the 15 species collected, six were successfully propagated using plant tissue culture, also known as micro- propagation. We concentrated on three of the six species and have attained commercial rates of multiplication and rooting in-vitro. These three species have been successfully acclimated and grown under commercial greenhouse conditions. Results comparing our potentially AHMT tissue cultured plants to non-selected plants of the same species (raised from seed) in test soils under greenhouse conditions will be presented. Future plans for field tests will be described and discussed.