Antimony tolerance and accumulation in a metallicolous and a non-metallicolous population of Salvia spinosa L.

Aims Antimony (Sb) is locally found at potentially toxic concentrations in mineralized soils, usually together with arsenic (As). However, local adaptation of plant populations to Sb toxicity has never been shown thus far. Here we compared Sb tolerance and accumulation between a non-metallicolous (NM) population of Salvia spinosa, and a con-specific metallicolous (M) population from a strongly Sb/As-enriched soil in Dashkasan, Iran.