RESEARCH ARTICLE Local Adaptation of Metallicolous and Non-Metallicolous Anthyllis vulneraria Populations: Their Utilization in Soil Restoration St´ ephanie Mahieu, 1,2 Souhir Soussou, 3 Jean-Claude Cleyet-Marel, 3 Brigitte Brunel, 4 Lucette Maur´ e, 3 Claude Lef` ebvre, 5 and Jos´ e Escarr´ e 1 Abstract Restoration of metalliferous mine soils requires using plant species tolerant to high metal concentrations and adapted to nutrient-poor soil. Legumes can increase plant pro- ductivity through N 2 -fixation, but they are often scarce in metalliferous sites. We examined survival, growth, and tolerance of four populations of a legume, Anthyllis vul- neraria , from two metalliferous (MET) Zn-Pb mine sites, Avini` eres (AV) ([Zn-EDTA] = 26,000 mg/kg) and Eylie (EY) ([Zn-EDTA] = 4,632 mg/kg), and two non-metalliferous (NMET) sites located in the south of France with the aim to select the most appropriate populations for restoration of mined soils. In a common garden experiment, plants from each population were reciprocally grown in soil from the provenance of each population. The two NMET popula- tions exhibited high mortality and low growth rates in soil from the mined sites. The AV MET exhibited a high growth rate in metalliferous soils, but showed high mortality in non-metalliferous soils. The growth of the EY MET was very low in the AV-contaminated soil, but was the high- est of all populations in moderately and non-metalliferous soils. Plants from the AV MET population showed a high growth and survival in metalliferous soil and would be appropriate in the restoration of metal-contaminated sites (>30,000 mg Zn kg -1 ). The EY MET population would be adapted to the restoration of moderate metal-contaminated soils (<30,000 mg Zn kg -1 ). Taking into account the broad distribution of A. vulneraria , these two populations could be suitable for the restoration of derelict mine sites in mediterranean and temperate regions of Europe and North America. Key words: legumes, metal-tolerant species, mine tailings, phytostabilization. Introduction Soils rich in naturally occurring heavy metals—such as ultramaphic soils—and those contaminated with metals due to human activity—such as mining—can be extremely toxic to animals and plants (Shaw 1990). Phytostabilization is an effective and non-intrusive technology that involves the use of metal-tolerant plants to reduce erosion and dispersal of toxic elements from contaminated soil into the environment (Salt et al. 1998). Because major nutrients (N, P, and K) are fre- quently in short supply in mine soils (Bradshaw & Chadwick 1980), legumes are used to increase the soil fertility and plant productivity through N 2 fixation (Vitousek and Field 1999). 1 CEFE, UMR CNRS 5175, Route de Mende 1919, F-34293, Montpellier Cedex 05, France 2 Address correspondence to S. Mahieu, email stephanie.mahieu@cefe.cnrs.fr 3 INRA, USC1242, LSTM, Campus International de Baillarguet, F-34398, Montpel- lier, France 4 Montpellier SupAgro, LSTM, UMR 113, F-34398, Montpellier, France 5 Laboratoire d’Ecologie v´ eg´ etale et de Biog´ eochimie, Universit´ e Libre de Bruxelles, Campus de la plaine, C5, CP244, Boulevard du Triomphe, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium  2012 Society for Ecological Restoration doi: 10.1111/j.1526-100X.2012.00927.x A general guideline in ecological restoration is to use local species (McKay et al. 2005) because they are assumed to be locally adapted (Leimu & Fischer 2008; Bischoff et al. 2010). However, only a few species within local floras are tolerant enough to colonize metal-contaminated mined sites (Antonovics et al. 1971). Furthermore, legume species are very rare in contaminated soils because metals are often toxic to symbiotic rhizobia (Chaudri et al. 2008). Therefore, using non-local legume species may be needed to phytostabilize and increase the fertility of mine soils. The symbiotic association between the legume Anthyllis vulneraria L. and a new species of rhizobia (Mesorhizobium metallidurans ) on an abandoned mine at Saint Laurent le Minier (southern France), tolerant of the high soil metal concentrations of Zn, Pb, and Cd (Vidal et al. 2009), has been used for the phytostabilization of mine tailings (Fr´ erot et al. 2006). Mahieu et al. (2011) demonstrated that 80% of total N in A. vulneraria originated from atmospheric N 2 . This species accumulated Zn in aerial parts (Escarr´ e et al. 2011), which can be toxic to herbivorous animals. Nevertheless, Zn from leaves returning to the soil at plant senescence is negligible in comparison to high soil concentrations. This monocarpic species dies after flowering and releases around 400 kg/ha −1 SEPTEMBER 2013 Restoration Ecology Vol. 21, No. 5, pp. 551–559 551