Psychotria gabriellae
Synonyms: Psychotria douarrei (Beauvis.) Däniker, Mapouria douarrei Beauvis.
Accumulation profile
- Substrate
- Ultramafic (serpentine)
- Habitat
- Ultramafic maquis and rainforest
- Distribution
- New Caledonia
- First reported
- 1978 · Jaffré & Schmid
- Verification
- review-cited
Description & ecology
A New Caledonian shrub holding one of the highest foliar nickel concentrations recorded in any plant, cited around 4.7% of leaf dry weight.
Restricted to ultramafic substrates, where nickel hyperaccumulation is near-universal across the genus in New Caledonia.
Taxonomy updated 2026-08-09: the accepted name is Psychotria gabriellae (Baill.) Guillaumin (GBIF taxonKey 3847888; Jaffré et al. 2013 note it was 'previously known as P. douarrei'). The long-used name P. douarrei is retained as a synonym and in this record's URL. The 47,500 µg/g figure remains a compilation value (review-cited); Jaffré et al. 2013 state 'up to 4% Ni' in leaves.
References
- 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
- van der Ent, A., Baker, A. J. M., Reeves, R. D., Pollard, A. J., & Schat, H. (2013). Hyperaccumulators of metal and metalloid trace elements: facts and fiction. Plant and Soil, 362, 319–334. doi:10.1007/s11104-012-1287-3
- Jaffré, T., Pillon, Y., Thomine, S., & Merlot, S. (2013). The metal hyperaccumulators from New Caledonia can broaden our understanding of nickel accumulation in plants. Frontiers in Plant Science, 4, 279. doi:10.3389/fpls.2013.00279