The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) as a biomonitor of lead and other elements in arid environments

Seasonal Variation of Heavy Metals Pollution in Soil and Date Palm Phoenix dactylifera L. Leaves at Basra Governorate /Iraq Written by Kearallah M.A. Al-Jabary, Jabbar D. Neama, Mohammed H.

“…Results showed that there was a variation in the content of heavy metals between the rainy and the dry seasons, which could be explained by the washing process by rain during the rainy season, this results are in a good agreement with the results of Al-Shayeb et al(1995), who reported a considerable amount of metal particulates is removed from leaflets surface by washing process, a natural washing process by rainfall during the rainy season led to the removal of heavy metals that deposited on leaves. Its noteworthy that, at all investigated sites, the levels of heavy metals in date palm leaves exceeded the available concentrations of heavy metals in soil, which indicates another source of pollution comes from foliar uptake, which both essential and non-essential metal can be taken up by the leaves (Marschner, 1995) or to dust deposition on the date palm leaves, subsequently heavy metal release into the atmosphere can be either deposited in the vicinity of the emission source or subjected to long-range transport via air masses, this could be an explanation for the high levels of Pb, Cd and Cr in date palm leaves samples collected from NS and Qr sites.…”

“…Compound samples of soil (six samples from each area) were collected from upper. Approximately 200 g of leaf samples were collected from young date palm trees, each of a maximum 3 m trunk height in order to reduce age variation among leaves samples (Al-Shayeb et al, 1995). Samples were collected from the distal portion of the middle age leaves which are not covered by higher leaves, and from all directions as a mixed sample (Al-Shayeb & Seaward, 2000).…”

“…Abass et al (2015) reported that, the date palm leaves can be used as a biomonitor of heavy metals in Basra governorate, also other parts of date palm have been used such as fiber (Al-Shayeb and Seaward, 2000), bark (Bu-Olayan and Thomas, 2002) fruits (Aldjain et al, 2011). Noteworthy, this tree is a typical urban tree in Basra governorate and cultivated over large areas, usually growing by roadsides in industrial, rural, residential and agricultural areas.…”

Atmospheric Heavy Metals Biomonitoring Using a Local Pinus eldarica Tree

“…The most popular trees used for this aim are Phoenix dactylifera (15,16), Pinus sylvestris (17), Pinus pinea (18), Nerium oleander (19), Pittosporum tobira (20), Acacia retinodes, Eucalyptus torquata (21), Populus nigra (22), Tibouchina pulchra (23), and Cedrus libani (24). While some studies have been carried out on pine species as HMs bio-indicators, no studies have been reported for HMs monitoring in the urban atmosphere using Pinus eldarica specie.…”

Comparative Study ofFungal Diversity and Heavy MetalContent in Street Trees in Cairo and RiyadhCities

“…This depends on the leaf geometry and surface characteristics such as cuticle, epidermis, stomata and the tricomes [10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17].The micro-environment of the leaf surface hosts different populations of microorganisms. This area was originally named the 'phyllosphere' [18] but is also referred to as the 'phylloplane' [19].…”