Nitrophily is a botanical term that indicates a preference of certain plant species for a habitat rich in nitrate. This term was first introduced by George Fuller during the 1930s. The word is a contraction of the Greek words νἰτρον (nitron) meaning "saltpetre" and φίλος (philos) meaning "friendly".[1]
Nitrophily is traditionally expressed as a score between 1 (not nitrophilous at all) and 10 (extremely nitrophilous) according to the Ellenberg N Index.[2] Alternatively, the response of leaf area to nitrogen supply is a relatively simple method to produce a proxy for the nitrophily.[3] Mostly the nitrophily is consistent with the nitrate availability, where the lowest values occur with plants that grow in peat bogs (such as Drosera- and Erica-species), while the highest values occur with plants that grow on fresh organic waste such as dung piles, waste heaps and strandlines (such as Chenopodium-, and Urtica-species).[4]
References
edit- ^ "Nitrophilous". Oxford Dictionalries. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
- ^ "Ellenberg N Index". Air Pollution Information System. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
- ^ Moreau, D.; Milard, G.; Munier-Jolain, N. (2013). "A plant nitrophily index based on plant leaf area response to soil nitrogen availability" (PDF). Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 33 (4): 809–815. doi:10.1007/s13593-013-0145-x.809-815&rft.date=2013&rft_id=info:doi/10.1007/s13593-013-0145-x&rft.aulast=Moreau&rft.aufirst=D.&rft.au=Milard, G.&rft.au=Munier-Jolain, N.&rft_id=https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01201394/file/13593_2013_Article_145.pdf&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Nitrophily" class="Z3988">
- ^ "Ellenberg's Indicator Values for British plants" (PDF). Wrexham University. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
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