Nitrophyte

nitrophyte [¦nī·trə‚fīt]

(botany)

A plant that requires nitrogen-rich soil for growth.

---

Nitrophyte 

a plant that grows well only on soils that are rich in assimilable nitrogen compounds, primarily salts of nitric acid and ammonium. Nitrophytes grow in pastures, especially in places where livestock have been kept. They include many weeds (Agropyron, Chenopodium, Atriplex, and Amaranthus), plants that grow on garbage sites (Urtica, Hyoscyamus, Carduus, Leonurus, and Artemisia absinthium), and plants that grow at logging sites (fireweed, Rubus, and other plants that use the nitrogen-containing salts from decomposing forest litter and logging waste). Nitrophytes include valuable forage grasses and meadow weeds (Heracleum, Anthriscus, Veratrum). Many cultivated plants, such as wheat, flax, and sunflower, are nitrophytes. A number of lower plants, including some mosses, algae, fungi, and lichens, are nitrophilous.