Plants needs cost many years to remediateheavy metal-contaminated croplands, and because some plants lack economic value, farmers often have no income during this period.Therefore, selecting suitable plants tolerant to heavy metals and producing products ofeconomicvalue may be a key factor in promoting the practical application of phytoremediation polluted soils. Many studies have demonstrated that some cash crops, which have the ability to attain large biomasses and accumulate metals, are highly tolerant to metal pollution.In order to fully utilize farmland contaminated with heavy metalsfrom mine tailings in Chenzhou, three cash crops (rape, corn, and sunflower) wereinvestigated as candidate phytoextraction plants with the potential to overcome these disadvantages of phytoremediation. To identify the potential of two seasonal cropping patterns (rape and corn, rape and sunflower) to remediate heavy metal contaminated land in Chenzhou, field experiments were conducted using rape, corn, and sunflower at a site highly contaminated with heavy metals(Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, As, and Hg) from mine tailings.The three cash crops demonstrated the potential to tolerate and accumulate heavy metals. Significant accumulations of Cu and Cd were found in leaves and roots of sunflower. The bioconcentration factors (BCF) of Cd in all sunflower parts (roots, stems, leaves, flower heads, and seeds) and the BCF of Cu in sunflower leaves and roots were more than 1. Both cropping patterns (rape-corn, rape-sunflower) performed well and had no significant effect on yield. Three cash crops produced high annual yields of dry biomass (rape: 16.6t/hm², corn: 25.29t/hm², sunflower: 25.25t/hm²)after one year rotations. Both cropping patterns absorbed a wide range of heavy metals from thesoil due to their highbiomass yields.Data obtained from the field experiment were used to estimate the amounts of heavy metals (g hm^-2 a^-1) extracted by the three cash crops grown in each of the two cropping patterns. The rape-sunflower cropping system extracted large amounts of Cu (2408g hm^-2 a^-1), Pb (2027g hm^-2 a^-1), Cd (658.5g hm^-2 a^-1), As (250g hm^-2 a^-1), while Zn (4987g hm^-2 a^-1) and Hg (7.92g hm^-2 a^-1) were extracted by the rape-corn cropping system. The rape-sunflower system performed better than rape-corn at remediating the heavy metal contaminated soil. Overall, the three cash crops tested are more suitable for phytoextraction than most conventional hyperaccumulator plants due to their larger biomass, although they have low bioconcentration factors. Cropping pattern had no effect on crop yield, but increased annual extraction of heavy metals from soil comparedsingle crop systems. Furthermore, rape, corn and sunflower are widely used as biofuel crops, so their seed oil could be for this purpose and the stems have great commercial value in ethanol and paper production. Using these crops and cropping systems for phytoextraction offers thepossibility of producing some economic returns for farmers during the remediationprocess.