Athyrium yokoscense

Description

Athyrium yokoscense, commonly known as Asian common ladyfern in English and as Hebino-negoza in Japanese, is a species of fern in the family Athyriaceae. These tough plants live primarily in and around mine sites and thrive in soils contaminated with high concentrations of heavy metals, such as zinc, cadmium, lead, and copper. A. yokoscense is indigenous to Japan, Korea, eastern Siberia and northeastern China and has been known for centuries to tolerate phytotoxic mining sites. The predominance and concentration of this fern species at a particular region was used to identify potential mining sites. The primary potential of A. yokoscense is in its phytoremediative ability to accumulate toxic metals from soils contaminated with heavy metals, so it may have some long-term commercial importance. No medicinal or culinary values of this fern species have been studied or confirmed.