Psychotria costivenia
Accumulation profile
- Substrate
- Ultramafic (serpentinite) and Ni-rich podzolic soils
- Habitat
- Cloud forest and forest on ultramafic soils
- Distribution
- Mexico (Chiapas, Veracruz), Guatemala
- First reported
- 2024 · Disinger et al.
- Verification
- primary-measured
Description & ecology
Field-collected leaves of subsp. costivenia (HNO₃–H₂O₂ digest, ICP-AES) reached 20,140 µg g⁻¹ Ni (N=9; Table 3; Disinger et al. 2024, Ecological Research 39:838–851, doi:10.1111/1440-1703.12495); subsp. altorum reached 13,750 (N=8).
Herbarium-XRF screening (corrected to predicted ICP values) of 19 specimens gave a maximum of 12,050 µg g⁻¹; the paper explicitly classifies the two Psychotria species as facultative hyperaccumulators.
Taxonomy of the hyperaccumulating populations remains unsettled (subsp. costivenia vs subsp. altorum) per the source paper.
References
- Disinger, H. P., Navarrete Gutiérrez, D. M., Díaz Reyes, A. M., Rodas Duarte, R., Quezada, M. L., van der Ent, A., Baker, A. J. M., Echevarria, G., & Pollard, A. J. M. (2024). Herbarium and field studies of nickel hyperaccumulator plants from ultramafic soils in Guatemala. Ecological Research, 39, 838–851. doi:10.1111/1440-1703.12495
- Reeves, R. D., Baker, A. J. M., Jaffré, T., Erskine, P. D., Echevarria, G., & van der Ent, A. (2018). A global database for plants that hyperaccumulate metal and metalloid trace elements. New Phytologist, 218, 407–411. doi:10.1111/nph.14907