Phytoliths—also known as plant opals—are preserved in soils and sediments and have
taxonomical relevance, therefore phytoliths can be fingerprints of the vegetation of the …

This paper is a review of some of the fundamental European studies of phytoliths in the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the earliest observations by German workers …

Phytoliths are a useful paleoproxy in arid environments. This modern analog study assessed
variability of silica phytoliths in 30 species of grasses and 42 modern soil samples from eight …

Phytoliths are efficient proxies in archaeology, plant taxonomy, palaeoenvironment, and
palaeoecology reconstruction, the research of which has been developing rapidly in recent …

Phytoliths are microscopic silt-sized particles usually composed of opaline silica. They form
in the cells of plants, primarily grasses and other monocotyledons and are often distinctive of …

Opaline phytoliths are formed when plants accumulate silica at the cellular level. This
biomineralization process reproduces, to some extent, the original plant tissue in the form of …

Biogenic silica extracted from 21 species commonly occurring in subalpine and alpine plant
communities in the central Swiss Alps were examined using light and SEM microscopes; 19 …

Phytoliths are composed of microscopic bodies of opaline silica that form within plant cells.
They are very durable, only corroding and eventually dissolving when subjected to alkaline …

Phytoliths, microscopic mineral deposits in plants, have the potential for encoding significant
archaeological and paleoenvironmental information. Although common throughout the plant …

In the last two decades, the number of phytolith studies has been growing exponentially
(Hart 2016), and phytolith analysis has developed into an established methodological tool …