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Facultative Hyperaccumulation of Nickel in Psychotria grandis (Rubiaceae)
Lia R. Campbell1,3, Catherine O. Stone1, Nadia M. Shamsedin1, Duane A. Kolterman2, and A. Joseph Pollard1,*
1Department of Biology, Furman University, Greenville, SC 29613, USA. 2Departamento de Biología, Universidad de Puerto Rico, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico 00681, USA. 3Current address: Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, NC State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA. *Corresponding author.
Caribbean Naturalist, No. 1 (2013)
Abstract
Hyperaccumulation is a rare phenomenon in which plants store exceptional concentrations of metals in their leaves. Psychotria grandis (Cachimbo Grande; Rubiaceae) has been reported as a nickel hyperaccumulator on serpentine soils in Puerto Rico. However, unlike most hyperaccumulators, P. grandis is not a serpentine endemic, being widely distributed throughout the neotropics. This study compared the nickel concentration of P. grandis leaves from sites on serpentine and non-serpentine soils, both through field collections in Puerto Rico and in a broad sample of herbarium material from the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Nickel was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Foliar nickel concentrations in P. grandis from Puerto Rican serpentines reached 8205 µg Ni g-1, confirming its hyperaccumulator status. Non-serpentine plants contained less than 125 µg g-1. Leaves from herbarium specimens in the broader sample ranged from undetectable Ni concentrations to over 15,000 µg g-1. These findings indicate that P. grandis is a facultative hyperaccumulator of nickel, achieving high foliar concentrations when growing on serpentine but containing low concentrations on non-metalliferous substrates.
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