Rare earth elements and plants

There has been a growing interest in the study of the rare earth elements (REEs) in recent decades of the last century, with the exploitation of REEs resources and applications in modern industry, medicine, agriculture and biotechnology. The main application of REEs is as new materials for recent technologies in the modern industry and agriculture, where low concentrations of REEs-based fertilizers are used to increase yield and quality of crops. Positive, negative or nil effects of RREs on plant growth, chemical composition and yield were observed in experiments done in many countries, but the physiological and biochemical mechanisms are still not well understood. Essentiality of REEs for living organisms or their threat to the environment has not been identified so far