Calcifuge

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A calcifuge is a plant that does not tolerate alkaline (basic) soil. [1] The word is derived from the Latin 'to flee from chalk'. These plants are also described as ericaceous, as the prototypical calcifuge is the genus Erica (heaths). It is not the presence of carbonate or hydroxide ions per se that these plants cannot tolerate, but the fact that under alkaline conditions, iron becomes less soluble. Consequently, calcifuges grown on alkaline soils often develop the symptoms of iron deficiency, i.e. interveinal chlorosis of new growth. There are many horticultural plants which are calcifuges, most of which require an 'ericaceous' compost with a low pH, composed principally of Sphagnum moss peat. Alternatively sulphur chips may be used to lower soil pH.

Contents

A plant that thrives in lime-rich soils is known as a calcicole.

Examples

[2]

Order Ericales

Ericaceae

Sarraceniaceae (carnivorous)

Styracaceae

Theaceae

Order Caryophyllales

Droseraceae (carnivorous)

Nepenthaceae (carnivorous)

  • Nepenthes (pitcher plants; but some species are calcitolerant or even calciphilous)

Order Lamiales

Lentibulariaceae (carnivorous)

  • Utricularia sect. Calpidisca and some other subgenera (non-epiphytic terrestrial bladderworts; there are some species that prefer neutral pH or are calciphilous)

Other orders

Asteraceae

Columelliaceae

Cornaceae

Elaeocarpaceae

Fagaceae

Gentianaceae

Hamamelidaceae

Papaveraceae

Poaceae

Proteaceae

Schisandraceae

Related Research Articles

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The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with about 4,250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.

<i>Vaccinium</i> Genus of berry-producing shrubs in the heath family

Vaccinium is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other heath plants, they are generally restricted to acidic soils.

<i>Gentiana acaulis</i> Species of plant

Gentiana acaulis, the stemless gentian, or trumpet gentian, is a species of flowering plant in the family Gentianaceae, native to central and southern Europe, from Spain east to the Balkans, growing especially in mountainous regions, such as the Alps and Pyrenees, at heights of 800–3,000 m (2,625–9,843 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil pH</span> Measure of how acidic or alkaline the soil is

Soil pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity (alkalinity) of a soil. Soil pH is a key characteristic that can be used to make informative analysis both qualitative and quantitatively regarding soil characteristics. pH is defined as the negative logarithm (base 10) of the activity of hydronium ions in a solution. In soils, it is measured in a slurry of soil mixed with water, and normally falls between 3 and 10, with 7 being neutral. Acid soils have a pH below 7 and alkaline soils have a pH above 7. Ultra-acidic soils and very strongly alkaline soils are rare.

<i>Vaccinium vitis-idaea</i> Species of shrub with edible fruit

Vaccinium vitis-idaea, the lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry, is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family Ericaceae. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including Eurasia and North America. Commercially cultivated in the United States Pacific Northwest and the Netherlands, the edible berries are also picked in the wild and used in various dishes, especially in Nordic cuisine.

<i>Erica arborea</i> Species of flowering plant

Erica arborea, the tree heath or tree heather, is a species of flowering plant (angiosperms) in the heather family Ericaceae, native to the Mediterranean Basin and Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa. It is also cultivated as an ornamental.

<i>Erica</i> (plant) Genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae

Erica is a genus of roughly 857 species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae. The English common names heath and heather are shared by some closely related genera of similar appearance. The genus Calluna was formerly included in Erica – it differs in having even smaller scale-leaves, and the flower corolla consisting of separate petals. Erica is sometimes referred to as "winter heather" to distinguish it from Calluna "summer heather".

<i>Daboecia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the heath family Ericaceae

Daboecia, or St. Dabeoc's heath, is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, containing two evergreen shrubs, closely related to the genus Erica. They are native to cliffs and heathland in southern Atlantic Europe and the Azores.

<i>Erica vagans</i> Species of flowering plant

Erica vagans, the Cornish heath or wandering heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to Ireland, Cornwall, western France and Spain. It is a vigorous, spreading, evergreen heather reaching 75 cm (30 in) tall and wide, with pink flowers borne in racemes 14 cm (6 in) long in summer and autumn. The Latin specific epithet vagans literally means "wandering"; in this context it means "widely distributed".

<i>Erica cinerea</i> Species of flowering plant in the heather family Ericaceae

Erica cinerea, the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe.

<i>Erica carnea</i> Species of flowering plant

Erica carnea, the winter heath, winter-flowering heather, spring heath or alpine heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to mountainous areas of central, eastern and southern Europe, where it grows in coniferous woodlands or stony slopes.

<i>Rhododendron calendulaceum</i> Species of plant

Rhododendron calendulaceum, the flame azalea, is a species of Rhododendron. It is a deciduous shrub that grows up to 120–450 cm tall. This species of Rhododendron is native to the Appalachian Mountains in the eastern United States, ranging from southern Pennsylvania and Ohio to northern Georgia. It may be extirpated from Pennsylvania and Alabama. It occurs naturally in mixed deciduous forests and is typically found in woodland slopes and mountain balds in the Appalachians, where it prefers dry and rocky mountain woods. The inflorescences of Rhododendron calendulaceum are visited by many animals such as bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and small mammals. It is a popular cultivated plant due to its bright yellow, orange or red flowers.

<i>Exobasidium vaccinii</i> Species of fungus

Exobasidium vaccinii, commonly known as “red leaf disease,” or “Azalea Gall,” is a biotrophic species of fungus that causes galls on ericaceous plant species, such as blueberry and azalea. Exobasidium vaccinii is considered the type species of the Exobasidium genus. As a member of the Ustilagomycota, it is a basidiomycete closely related to smut fungi. Karl Wilhelm Gottlieb Leopold Fuckel first described the species in 1861 under the basionym Fusidium vaccinii, but in 1867 Mikhail Stepanovich Voronin later placed it in the genus Exobasidium. The type specimen is from Germany, and it is held in the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Exobasidium vaccinii, in current definition from John Axel Nannfeldt in 1981, is limited on the host Vaccinium vitis-idaea. This idea is used in most recent papers on E. vaccinii.

Ericaceous may refer to:

Chalk heath is a rare habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, formed of a paradoxical mixture of shallow-rooted calcifuge ("calcium-hating") and deeper-rooted calcicole ("calcium-loving") plants, growing on a thin layer of acidic soil over an alkaline substrate. Chalk heath is intermediate between two much more widespread habitats, chalk grassland and heathland.

<i>Erica mammosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Erica mammosa, the nine-pin heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, that is naturally restricted to the southwestern corner of the Western Cape, South Africa.

<i>Rhododendron vaseyi</i> Species of flowering plant

Rhododendron vaseyi is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common name pinkshell azalea. It is endemic to the Appalachian highlands of North Carolina in widely scattered locations. While there is a main center of distribution west of Asheville, there is also a large population on Grandfather Mountain, in the northwestern corner of the state.

<i>Vaccinium oxycoccos</i> Species of flowering plant

Vaccinium oxycoccos is a species of flowering plant in the heath family. It is known as small cranberry, marshberry, bog cranberry, swamp cranberry, or, particularly in Britain, just cranberry. It is widespread throughout the cool temperate northern hemisphere, including northern Europe, northern Asia and northern North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ericaceous bed</span> Bed with acidic soil typically having a pH between 4.5 and 6 used for growing Calcifuges

An ericaceous bed is a bed with acidic and often nutrient-poor soil such as ericaceous compost and different types of peat. The pH of the soil is typically between 4.5 and 6. The purpose is to grow a number of garden plants which require acidic soil. Such plants commonly include heathers. Another group of plants common in ericaceous beds are those belonging to the boreal coniferous forest, e.g. Vaccinium (blueberries). A number of orchids also grow well in nutrient-poor soil. Ericaceous fertilizer can be applied to plants that require acidic, but not nutrient-poor, soil.

Leohumicola verrucosa is a heat-resistant, endophytic, ericoid mycorrhizal soil fungus. Its species name refers to rough, warty or spine-like ornamentations on its aleurioconidia. L. verrucosa was first described from samples of soil exposed to fire; among these it was especially abundant in regularly burned blueberry fields in eastern Canada. L. verrucosa forms mycorrhizal relationships with a wide variety and distribution of species in the Ericaceae family.

References

  1. Shorter Oxford English dictionary, 6th ed. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. 2007. p. 3804. ISBN   978-0199206872.
  2. Collins complete garden manual. United Kingdom: HarperCollins. 1998. p. 336. ISBN   0004140109.