Rare earth element concentrations in mature and developing leaves of fern, Blechnacea, collected in the University Forests of Ashiu, Kyoto University

Concentrations of REEs in fern leaves collected indifferently to the fern species from 9 sampling sites in Japan have been investigated using INAA. The results indicated a large variation in the values obtained between fern leaves. Same analytical method was applied on the samples (Blechnaceae, a kind of fern, mature and developing leaves were collected from the same plant) restrictively gathered from the University Forests in Ashiu, Kyoto University. It was demonstrated that the variations in the REE concentrations decreased by one to two order of magnitude, and that the REE contents in developing leaves were also one to two orders of magnitude lower than those in mature leaves. It can be considered that fern accumulates REEs with their growth stages. (author)