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The terms '''Acidophobe/Acidophobia//Acidophoby/Acidophobic''' <ref name="Acidophobe"/> 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". The name is actually a misnomer as it combines Latin and Greek roots; the correct word would be oxyphobe/oxyphobia from Greek οξυ, acid.
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.
==References==
[[Category:Physiology]]
