Plant Selection, Installation, and Management to Affect Groundwater - Introduction to Phytoremediation of Contaminated Groundwater - page 172

Fig. 7.5 A typical planting
distribution to achieve a goal of
recharge reduction at a site in
coastal North Carolina
characterized by the release of jet
fuel from an above-ground
storage tank. The site had been
regraded and planted with grass
decades before these hybrid
poplar cuttings were installed in
the spring of 2006. This image
shows the cuttings after 3 months
of growth. Brad Atkinson (North
Carolina Department of
Environment and Natural
Resources-Division of Waste
Management) is shown for scale
(Photograph by author; see Cook
et al. 2010 for further
explanation).

will need to have some root contact with the capillary fringe
or water table to be successful.
Table 7.1 includes a variety of grasses, shrubs, and trees
that possess the ability to have roots near and into ground-
water. Although most are native to the western United
States, some also can be found in the more humid eastern
United States. This quote says it best:

The distribution of the native vegetation throughout the eastern
part of the United States is influenced by the water table to a
much greater extent than is realized by most persons who have
not given much attention to the occurrence of groundwater.
In some places in the woodlands near Washington, D.C., ferns
have been observed adhering about as closely to tracts of
shallow groundwater as the well-recognized groundwater plants
of the West, and many similar examples of the relation of plants
of a particular species to the water table can readily be found
almost anywhere in the East.

O.E. Meinzer (1927)

What we know about such obligate and facultative
phreatophytes is derived from a variety of sources, as
discussed in Chap. 1. These include (1) historical recordings
of plants associated with usable quantities and quality of
groundwater in arid areas; (2) the use of phreatophytes to
prospect for minerals in the western United States; (3) wil-
derness survival tactics, such as taught by the armed forces,
to ensure survival; (4) the experience, research, and devel-
opment of the pulpwood industry; and (5) the practice of
dewatering land to support agriculture or other purposes.
Each of these five sources of information has an obvious
economic interest. More importantly, all can provide useful

Fig. 7.6 Growth of hybrid poplar trees from cuttings after 1-year at the
site in coastal North Carolina. Dr. Elizabeth Guthrie-Nichols (North
Carolina State University) is shown for scale (Photograph by author;
see Cook et al. 2010 for further explanation).

contaminated and near property boundaries, in much the
way that many pump-and-treat systems often are installed
near property boundaries. If this is done, the installed plants