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
- review-cited
Description & ecology
Population-mean foliar Tl ~23,900 µg/g (endogenous, contamination-controlled); across the Allchar violets individual plants reached up to 58,900 µg/g Tl.
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