The terms Acidophobe/Acidophobia//Acidophoby/Acidophobic refer to intolerace to
acidic environments. The term is variously applied to
plants,
bacteria,
protozoa,
animals,
chemical compounds, etc. The anthonymous term is "
acidophile". Cf. "
alkaliphile".Plants are known to be well-defined with respect to their pH tolerance, and only a small number of species thrive well under a broad range of acidity. Therefore the categorization acidophile/acidophobe is well-defined. Sometimes a complementary classification is used (calcicole/calcifuge, with calcicoles being "
lime-loving" plants). In gardening,
soil pH is a measure of
acidity or
alkalinity of
soil, with pH=7 indicating the neutral soil. Therefore acydophobes would prefer pH above 7. Acid intolerance of plants may be mitigated by
lime addition and by calcium and nitrogen fertilizers.
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