Intraspecific chemical diversity is a common phenomenon especially found in shoots of essential oilaccumulating
plant species. Abiotic factors can influence the concentration of essential oils, but the
effects are inconsistent and little is known in how far these may vary within an individual and within
species between chemotypes. Tanacetum vulgare L. occurs in various chemotypes that differ in the composition
of mono- and sesquiterpenoids in their shoot tissues. We investigated how far shoot chemotype
grouping is mirrored in root terpenoid profiles. Furthermore, we studied whether different fertilisation
amounts influence the plant growth and morphological traits as well as the constitutive terpenoid concentration
of leaves and roots of three chemotypes, trans-carvyl acetate, b-thujone, and camphor, to different
degrees. Shoot terpenoids were dominated by monoterpenoids, while the roots contained mainly
sesquiterpenoids. The clear grouping in three chemotypes based on leaf chemistry was weakly mirrored
in the root terpenoid composition. Furthermore, the leaf C/N ratio and the stem height differed between
chemotypes. All plants responded to increased nutrient availability with increased total biomass and specific
leaf area but decreased C/N and root/shoot ratios. Leaf terpenoid concentrations decreased with
increasing fertiliser supply, independent of chemotype. In contrast to the leaves, the terpenoid concentrations
of the roots were unaffected by fertilisation. Our results demonstrate that aboveground and
belowground organs within a species can be under different selection pressures.