Leucocroton flavicans
Accumulation profile
- Substrate
- Ultramafic (serpentine)
- Habitat
- Cuban serpentine (charrascal)
- Distribution
- Cuba
- First reported
- 1996 · Reeves et al.
- Verification
- primary-measured
Description & ecology
VALUE AS STATED AT SOURCE (Reeves, Baker, Borhidi & Berazaín 1996, New Phytologist 133:217–224, Table 2, field leaf dry matter): L. flavicans from Cajálbana serpentine 6,710–15,500 µg g⁻¹ Ni (n=6). Read at source (full-text capture) 2026-09-13.
CORRECTION 2026-09-13: the previously listed 26,000 µg/g was REFUTED at source — it appears nowhere in the paper and was likely a conflation with L. linearifolius (13,310–27,240), the genus maximum in the same table. Corrected to the paper's own maximum, 15,500.
Earlier history: Berazaín (1981) reported 7,700 µg/g Ni for 'L. flavicans' from Loma Galindo, but the 1996 authors re-determined those specimens as L. angustifolius (now synonymised under L. flavicans). One of many Ni-hyperaccumulating Euphorbiaceae endemic to Cuba's ancient serpentine soils.
The genus Leucocroton is remarkable: all ~26 species are serpentine endemics and hyperaccumulate nickel (Jaffré et al. 2013).
References
- Reeves, R. D., Baker, A. J. M., Borhidi, A., & Berazaín, R. (1996). Nickel-accumulating plants from the ancient serpentine soils of Cuba. New Phytologist, 133, 217–224. doi:10.1111/j.1469-8137.1996.tb01888.x
- 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