The use of vegetation as a diagnostic tool for environmental contamination has evolved from descriptive practices. Plants have long been used as bioindicators of environmental contamination， particularly heavy metals. While analytical advances have greatly improved our ability to quantify trace elements in plant tissues， interpreting these data remains a critical challenge. This viewpoint argued that plants should not be considered as passive recorders of environmental pollution， but as dynamic systems that integrate， transform， and redistribute metals according to species-specific physiology and environmental conditions.
