The present article reviews the current knowledge of absorption and accumulation of heavy metals and radioactive substances in bryophytes. A number of studies have heretofore given evidence to suggest that bryophytes have unusually high ability to absord and accumulate heavy metals and radioactive substances as compared with other plants, such as vascular plants, and that may indicate the pollution levels in an area under study at that time. We suggest the availability of bryophytes as indicator plants of distribution and pollution level of heavy metals and radioactive substances.