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

  1. ↑ "Nitrophilous". Oxford Dictionalries. Archived from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  2. ↑ "Ellenberg N Index". Air Pollution Information System. Retrieved 2016-12-09.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ "Ellenberg's Indicator Values for British plants" (PDF). Wrexham University. Retrieved 2016-12-09.


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