Abstract. Several soils developed on the former serpentinite quarry of Penas Albas (Moeche, Galicia, NW Spain) were studied, together with the vegetation growing spontaneously over them. The aim of this work was to identify the bioavailability of heavy metals and to evaluate the potential of spontaneous vegetation for the phytoremediation and/or phytostabilisation of these areas. The pH of the soils ranges from neutral to basic, with very low organic matter and nitrogen contents. There are imbalances between exchangeable cations that can strongly limit plant production. Moreover, in all of the soils there are high levels of Co, Cr and Ni (> 70, > 1500, and > 1325 mg kg-1, respectively). They exceed the intervention limits indicated in different guides. Different soil extractions were performed in order to evaluate bioavailability. CaCl2 0.01 M is the most effective extraction reagent, although the reagent that best predicts plant availability is the mixture of low molecular weight organic acids. Festuca rubra, L. is the spontaneous plant growing in the soils that accumulates the highest amount of the metals, both in shoot and roots. Festuca also has the highest translocation factor values, although they are only > 1 for Cr. The bioconcentration factor is > 1 in all of the cases, except in the shoot of Juncus sp. for Co and Ni. The results indicate that Festuca is a phytostabilizer of Co and Ni and an accumulator of Cr, while Juncus sp. is suitable for phytostabilization. Both of the studied species contribute towards the phytostabilisation of the soils and their recovery, improving their characteristics and making it possible to start planting other species.