Performance of miconia albicans (sw.) triana, an aluminum‐accumulating species, in acidic and calcareous soils

Abstract

Abstract Seedlings of Miconia albicans (Sw.) Triana, an aluminum‐accumulating shrub, which grow naturally on acid latosols of the cerrado region of central Brazil, were grown in a strongly acid dystrophic soil, a strongly acid gallery forest soil and a calcareous soil in a pot culture experiment. The seedlings grew better in the fertile acid soil than in the dystrophic soil. They failed to grow in the calcareous soil, producing only a single pair of yellowed, necrotic leaves with low Al concentration after the emergence of a first pair of green leaves. Plants with chlo‐rotic leaves, transplanted from the calcareous to the acid soils, showed complete recovery of chlorotic leaves and a concomitant increase in the Al concentration in leaves. Plants growing in the calcareous soil with chlorotic leaves also showed complete recovery when parts of their root systems were grown in an AlCl3. solution containing 10 mg Al L‐1. Plants grown in gallery forest soil, when transplanted to the calcareous soil, showed redu...