Scientists Find a Rare Earth Growing Fern That Could Change the Future of Clean Energy

Every once in a while, science uncovers something so unexpected that it feels like nature has been hiding a secret in plain sight. This time, the surprise comes from a common tropical fern. Researchers studying Blechnum orientale have found that the plant does something no one had ever observed before. It absorbs rare earth elements from the soil and grows them into actual crystal structures inside its tissues.

Rare earths are essential to many of the technologies we rely on today. They help generate electricity in wind turbines, power the magnets in electric vehicles, boost computing performance, strengthen fiber optic networks, and even support medical imaging tools. Although these metals are not truly rare, collecting them is difficult, expensive, and often environmentally damaging.

The idea that an ordinary fern can harvest these metals naturally provides a completely new way of thinking about how we source critical materials for the future.

Why Rare Earth Metals Are So Hard to Get

For years, scientists have warned that the world’s demand for rare earth elements is rising faster than its supply. Traditional mining requires digging deep into the Earth, crushing rock, and using harsh chemicals to separate out the metals. This process can contaminate water sources and damage surrounding ecosystems. It also concentrates production in a small number of countries, which creates political and economic risks.

As renewable energy and advanced electronics become more widespread, these concerns grow even more pressing. A sustainable and widely accessible method for collecting rare earths would be a major step toward global clean energy independence.

This is exactly why the new discovery is attracting so much attention.

The Plant That Breaks the Rules

Blechnum orientale was already known to be a hyperaccumulator, which means it can grow in soils rich with metals and pull them into its tissues. However, when scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences examined the plant under advanced microscopes, they found something extraordinary.

The fern was not just storing rare earth metals. It was turning them into monazite crystals, a rare earth mineral that normally forms deep underground under intense heat and pressure. Yet the fern produced these crystals at room temperature, using only natural biological processes.

Inside the plant’s tissues, the researchers observed tiny structures forming patterns similar to chemical gardens. These formations contained elements like neodymium, lanthanum, and cerium. These are some of the most valuable rare earths for manufacturing powerful magnets and clean energy technologies.

This is the first time scientists have ever seen a plant create rare earth minerals in this way.

A Green Pathway to Mineral Formation

The idea that a plant can trigger mineral formation under mild conditions could rewrite what we know about geochemistry. It suggests that some geological processes might happen at the surface of the Earth far more easily than previously believed.

More importantly, the discovery provides a foundation for scientists who hope to develop plant based rare earth mining, also known as phytomining. In phytomining, plants draw metals from soil and store them, allowing the metals to be extracted later in a much cleaner way.

Until now, phytomining had been explored mostly for metals like nickel or cobalt. Rare earths were considered too complex to be collected by plants. The fern has now proven otherwise.

What This Could Mean for the Future

If researchers can find an efficient way to extract these crystals from the plants, entire farms of rare earth ferns could one day become living mines. Instead of digging, blasting, or processing ore with acids, communities could grow metal rich ferns, harvest them, and refine the minerals with far less environmental damage.

This approach could support a reliable supply of rare earth elements for wind turbines, electric vehicle motors, smartphones, satellites, and many future technologies. It could also help countries that lack traditional mining infrastructure participate in the clean energy economy by cultivating these plants in suitable soils.

Scientists believe the discovery highlights a natural pathway for rare earth mineralization that has been overlooked. It also introduces a completely new concept for generating functional rare earth materials directly from biological systems.

Are There More Plants With This Ability

Researchers are now looking closely at another fern species called Dicranopteris linearis. Early signs suggest it may also perform a similar process, although no direct crystal formation has been observed yet. If multiple plant species can do this, phytomining could become significantly easier to scale.

Future studies must determine how widespread this ability is, how much metal the plants can store, and how efficiently monazite can be extracted without losing valuable materials.

Challenges That Scientists Still Need to Solve

Although the discovery is groundbreaking, several questions remain.

• The extraction process must be perfected so that rare earth crystals can be collected efficiently.
• Soil environments must be identified where plants can safely accumulate high levels of rare earths.
• Large scale cultivation must be tested to ensure that it does not affect local ecosystems.
• Economic models must be developed to see if phytomining can compete with traditional mining.

Even with these challenges, scientists believe the research proves that nature can provide solutions to some of our most complex technological problems.

A New Vision for Clean Energy and Sustainable Mining

The discovery of a plant capable of growing its own rare earth crystals stands as a powerful reminder of the hidden possibilities within the natural world. It suggests that sustainable mining does not have to rely entirely on machines or chemicals. It can also rely on living organisms that quietly perform complex tasks with very little energy.

As scientists continue to explore this phenomenon, the fern Blechnum orientale may become a symbol of the next generation of sustainable technology. It represents a future where mining is greener, cleaner, and more compatible with life on Earth.

The world is now looking closely at a humble fern that might hold the key to powering the technologies of tomorrow.

The research was published in Environmental Science & Technology on November 4, 2025.