Hi Ben,
In general you are unlikely to find lead in the shoots of plants, because it
is not very soluble and most plants exclude heavy metals.  The edible plants
that may have Pb would likely be leafy vegetables (grown close to the
ground) and root vegetables (as mentioned earlier) because of the associated
soil particles containing Pb.

There are some plants that uptake heavy metals into their shoots but few for
Pb, and even those may only do so under rare circumstances (such as
phosphorous deficiency - Chaney 2007 J. Environ. Qual. 36:1429–1443).  If
you are interested in other contaminants you can look into the metal
hyperaccumulation literature.  Many of these plants are in the mustard
family but probably are not normally eaten.

best,
Judy


Judy Che-Castaldo
BEES program, Biology Dept.
University of Maryland
(301)351-8290
http://www.life.umd.edu/grad/BEES/students/che.html

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