Ability Of Non-Legumes To Fix Nitrogen

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29726, 20 January 1962, Page 6

Ability Of Non-Legumes To Fix Nitrogen

r pilE ability of plants which are not legumes to fix nitrogen was important for New Zealand, as there was a paucity of native legumes in this country but several native plants which fixed nitrogen through their root nodules, said Dr. T M. Morrison. senior lecturer in the plant science department at Lincoln College, this week. While in Britain recently under a Nuffield Foundation fellowship Dr. Morrison looked into this subject with Dr. G. Bond at the botany

department of Glasgow University Dr. Morrison said that Dr. Bond had been studying this subject for quite a long time and was about the only person who had gone into it in any detail. ' Dr Morrison said that ne had shown in New Zealand that both tutu and matagouri fixed nitrogen through their root nodules. To what extent he did not know, but it was obvious that tutu stimulated other vegetation. The purpose of his studies was to find out the. extbnt of nitrogen fixation by these plants, the optimum conditions for it. and its significance in the field in, particularly, tussock grasslands. At the agriculture department at Oxford University Dr. Morrison worked on his own project of mineral accumulation by mycorrhizas, which are roots that become clothed in fungal threads. This sort of formation is common in beech, pines, poplars, and rhododendrums, and these fungal threads accumulate phosphorous from the soil, acting for phosphorus in much the same way as clover nodules act for nitrogen. They form a rich source of the element for the plant. Dr. Morrison said that he was trying to show that this fungus tvas not a general nutrient accumulator but seemed to be particularly interested in phosphorus. At Oxford he worked with Dr. J. L. Harley, who has been working in the same field for a long time. The opportunity of using Dr. Harley’s equipment, techniques, and material formed a valuable comparison with his own work in New Zealand and served to show whether they were working on the same lines and enhanced the value of results, said Dr. Morrison.