Floristic surveys of hydrocarbon-polluted sites in some Cameroonian cities (Central Africa)

Soils pollution with hydrocarbons is on the increase, especially in developing countries like Cameroon. Identifying plant species capable of growing on hydrocarbon-polluted soils remains an essential step in phytoremediation, a low cost, solar energy driven clean up technique in which living green plants are used. Here, we report floristic surveys conducted in 4 cities of Cameroon to identify plants with phytoremediation capacities. A total of 13 hydrocarbon-polluted sites were surveyed in each city using the quadrat method. Unpolluted sites served as the control. 106 species belonging to 76 genera and 30 families were identified on hydrocarbon-polluted sites. Plant diversity was shown to be higher (166 species contained in 125 genera and 50 families) in the control sites. Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Asteraceae and Amaranthaceae families have a higher taxonomic richness on polluted sites (16, 15, 10 and 8 taxa respectively). Shannon diversity index of the hydrocarbon-polluted sites (1.6 to 2.7 bits/ind.) were significantly lower than the control sites (2.7 to 3.2 bit/ind.). Based on a relative frequency > 10% and abundance > 7%, our results show that more than 15 plant species could be tested in preliminary trials to determine their phytoremediation/cleaning-up capacities on hydrocarbon-polluted soils in the tropics.