Certain species of flowering plants that are resistant to heavy metal soil pollution

Indeed, there are plants known to science that take up metallic pollution and are harvested because they have concentrations of specific metals that make it economic to reclaim, in the context of cleaning-up an industrial site.

When I wus yung, we had an area the was known locally as "the Tip" because it had been a dip used/owned by a foundry for dumping spoil (mostly sand). And all unwanted household/vehicular ephemera ended up there. The plants that grew there were all weeds, like Rosebay Willow Herb, and one I couldn't now identify. Not even a nettle braved the dump.
It is now a play area, all leveled and grassed.