Money grows on trees

Well almost....

Research on Eucalyptus trees in Australia has shown that the trees' leaves can contain a very small trace amount of gold if there is gold in the rocks below.  This isn't enough to extract useful quantities of the metal from the tree; far more usefully it can indicate the presence of gold in the rocks which may be worth investigating.  This gives geologists another tool with which to find resources, particularly ones lile gold that are found in such low concentrations.

It has been known for a long time that particular plants can indicate the geology under the surface, but this is the first time that these elements have been able to be located in the living tissue of the plants.

Thanks to Rosie for spotting this story.