Viola arsenica
Accumulation profile
- Substrate
- As/Tl mineralised soils
- Habitat
- Allchar Sb–As–Tl deposit
- Distribution
- North Macedonia (Allchar)
- First reported
- 2023 · Jakovljević et al.
- Verification
- primary-measured
Description & ecology
Promoted and relabelled 2026-08-09: the previously stored 23,900 µg/g is the population MEAN; the primary (Jakovljević et al. 2023, Metallomics 15:mfad063, open access, read at source) states 'The mean concentration was 23,900 mg kg⁻¹, whereas the highest individual had up to 58,900 mg kg⁻¹' — field-collected leaves, HNO₃ digestion + ICP-AES. Under this database's foliar-maximum convention the stored value is 58,900; at publication the authors called it the highest known concentration of Tl in plant above-ground tissue (since exceeded only by Silene latifolia's XRF-based 79,200).
Cross-method corroboration: the 2025 Allchar survey (lab XRF) measured V. arsenica leaves at 31,600 µg/g — between the 2023 mean and maximum, consistent.
Despite its name and As-rich substrate it is NOT an arsenic hyperaccumulator — leaf As peaked at only 381 µg/g, far below the 1,000 µg/g threshold.
References
- Jakovljević, K., Mišljenović, T., Bačeva Andonovska, K., Echevarria, G., Baker, A. J. M., Brueckner, D., & van der Ent, A. (2023). Thallium hyperaccumulation status of the violets of the Allchar arsenic–thallium deposit (North Macedonia) confirmed through synchrotron µXRF. Metallomics, 15, mfad063. doi:10.1093/mtomcs/mfad063
- Jakovljević, K., Salinitro, M., Bačeva Andonovska, K., Mišljenović, T., Brueckner, D., & van der Ent, A. (2025). Surviving Allchar: arsenic and thallium tolerance and distribution in Viola metallophytes. Annals of Botany, 136, 1515–1524. doi:10.1093/aob/mcaf166