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Mineralogical Magazine; April 2008; v. 72; no. 2; p. 607-616; DOI: 10.1180/minmag.2008.072.2.607
© 2008 Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland
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Mineral phases and element composition of the copper hyperaccumulator lichen Lecanora polytropa

O. W. Purvis1,*, B. Pawlik-Skowronska2, G. Cressey1, G. C. Jones1, A. Kearsley1 and J. Spratt1

1 Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK
2 Centre for Ecological Research, PAS at Dziekanów Lesny, Experimental Station, Niecala 18, 20-080 Lublin, Poland

* E-mail: w.purvis{at}nhm.ac.uk

Mineral phases and element localization were investigated in the vivid turquoise-coloured lichen, Lecanora polytropa, sampled from a psammite boulder in a wall supporting mine spoil at the abandoned copper mine, Riddarhyttan Kopparverke, southern Sweden. Normally pale yellowish (usnic acid), the lichen is turquoise coloured internally with bluish inclusions. X-ray mapping shows that Cu occurs on and within the lichen and does not coincide with P or S, suggesting that it is indeed associated with carbon or other elements not detected (or reported) using X-ray mapping. Scanning electron microscopy in back-scatter mode confirmed that the greatest Cu concentrations occur in the form of crystalline aggregates in coloured inclusions below the major internal turquoise layer with smaller Cu contents. X-ray diffraction with a position-sensitive detector (XRD-PSD) confirmed coloured crystalline aggregates consisted of the copper oxalate, moolooite. The study confirms the value of XRD-PSD as a non-destructive tool to characterize small (~50 µm) metal oxalate inclusions obtained from within lichen samples.

KEYWORDS: lichen, Lecanora polytropa, copper, mine, XRD-PSD, southern Sweden






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