[Studies on the adaptation of five legumes species to copper tailings]

Pot experiments with five legumes were conducted in five different amendment substrates for the reclamation of copper tailings in Tongling, Anhui province. The five tested legumes species are Glycine max, Phaseolus angularis, P. calcaratus, P. radiatus, P. mininus. The results showed that the main factors to restrict growing of the vegetation are poor nutrient and high concentration of Cu. The seeds of the legumes species could germinate, but they germinated later in the substrates with higher proportion of copper tailings than in the substrates with lower proportion of copper tailings. After clipping, G. max, P. angularis, P. calcaratus, P. radiatus were alive all the time, but some of the other two legumes species were dead because of the their non-adaptation to the copper tailings. At the same amendment group, the chlorophyll contents of G. max and P. calcaratus were higher than that of other three experimental species on the 50th day. The height and the biomass of G. max and P. calcaratus were higher than that of other three experimental species on the 70th day too. According to the biological characteristics of the five species during the growth periods about indexes of the seeding survival, chlorophyll content, height and biomass, G. max and P. calcaratus are more adaptive and tolerant than the other legumes and the TA75 amendment approach is the more reasonable for the reclamation of copper tailings.