Should the soil coarse fraction be considered a key element in the functioning of highly anthropized soils, especially regarding its function of vegetation support? The soil coarse fraction is very often deemed inert for not contributing to the soil's nutritional potential or contaminants in the short term. However, in forest context, it can contribute significantly to the assimilation of essential nutrients by plants. Yet, insufficient research has been done to understand its relationship with plants in the context of highly anthropized soils. In these contexts, coarse materials are found in various quantities and natures and can constitute in some cases the main source of pedogenetic evolution of these systems. This raises the questions of the direct contribution of the soil coarse fraction to plant nutrition, as well as their overall contribution to plant growth support. In an original controlled experiment Lactuca sativa seedlings were cultivated for 10 weeks on six different substrates associating sand, considered inert, and model materials (1/1 w/w) at different grain size classes. The model materials were picked for their representativeness of highly anthropized soil coarse fraction constituents (limestone, brick, blast furnace slag, anthracite, petroleum coke and inert crushed glass as control) and the grain size classes were the following: <2, 2-4, 4-8, 8-16 and 16- 31,5 mm. The physiological parameters of the plants as well as their physico-chemical characteristics were determined to evaluate the global effect of the materials and their granulometry on plants development. The results show that biomass yield and root length were affected positively or negatively by grain size classes depending on the type of substrate. In addition, some coarse materials were identified as the main source of some elements taken up by the plants. More specifically, the fine fraction of model material had the most severe impact on plant growth, whereas coarse fraction of limestone, blast furnace slag and petroleum coke performed as well as the control (crushed glass). Overall, brick and anthracite had the most negative impact on plant physiology. This study showed that coarse materials can be beneficial to plant development in the short term and could constitute supplementary nutrient resources in highly anthropized soils. Moreover, this study sheds new light on the role of the soil coarse fraction to promote plant growth, thus highlighting the interest of taking it into account in derelicts land reclamation strategies.