Nitrophily
Nitrophily is a botanical term that indicates a preference for a habitat rich in nitrate. This term was first introduced by George Fuller during the 1930s. The word is a contraction of the Greek words νἰτρον meaning "saltpetre" and φίλος meaning "friendly".
Nitrophily is traditionally expressed as a score between 1 and 10 according to the Ellenberg N Index. Alternatively, the response of leaf area to nitrogen supply is a relatively simple method to produce a proxy for the nitrophily. Mostly the nitrophily is consistent with the nitrate availability, where the lowest values occur with plants that grow in peat bogs, while the highest values occur with plants that grow on fresh organic waste such as dung piles, waste heaps and strandlines.
