| Summary: | The unpleasant effect of serpentine soil on plant life has been a topic of many studies for several decades.
Infertility and flora selectivity nature of serpentine soils are the features, which made them of interest
throughout the world. This research includes a geochemical study on two Malaysian serpentine massifs to
introduce their harmful factors concerning vegetation. X-ray fluorescence results on 11 soil samples showed
that serpentine soils comprise large values of iron and magnesium (up to 55 wt and 65 wt% respectively) and
high amounts of some heavy metals like chromium (1248-18990 μg g-1), nickel (189-1692 μg g-1) and cobalt
(95-478 μg g-1). However, soil extraction by ammonium acetate solution revealed that only magnesium is plant
available. Besides, serpentine soils are poor in some major plant nutrients such as nitrogen, potassium and
phosphorus. This substantial paucity is the main cause of bareness in these lands. Soils in the studied areas are
moderately acidic and have the adequate cation holding capacity. Their Ca/Mg quotient is very low (less than
1). The latter with the low availability of the calcium (0.34 m-equiv 100 g-1 in average) is another challenging
parameter in serpentine soils, which exerts negative influence on plant growing.
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