Tr. J. of Botany

The plant materials such as fungi, lichens, tree bark, tree rings and leaves of higher plants, have been used for many years to detect the deposition, accumulation and distribution of metal pollution. Lower plants; especially mosses and lichens; in view of their higher capacity for metal accumulation are probably the organisms most frequently used for monitoring metal pollution in urban environments (1, 2). Leaves of higher plants have been used for biomonitoring heavy metals since 1950s (2). The past few decades have seen an increase in the use of higher plant leaves as biomonitor of heavy metal pollution in the terrestrial environment (3–5). Aksoy and Öztürk (4), for example, used date palm leaves to monitor the distribution of airborne Pb, Cd, Zn and Cu in the city of Antalya in Turkey. A comparison of washed and unwashed samples showed that leaf analyses gave a reasonably reliable measure of the total aerial fallout of heavy metals in the studied area. In Kayseri city, Elaeagnus angustifolia L. (Elaeagnaceae) a typical urban tree; with a more or less a cosmopolitant distribution; usually occurs along roadside in industrial, urban parks, rural and agricultural areas, even under higher levels of urban pollution. This species shows a broad geographical range, occurring widely i