Nitrogen Fixation by Non-nodulated Plants, and by Nodulated Coriaria arborea

Abstract

IN a recent communication, Bond¹ discusses the probability that nodulated plants of Coriaria fix atmospheric nitrogen in the same way as other non-leguminous nodulated plants with which he has worked. This supposition is confirmed by the results of a trial which was made during the course of other work using nitrogen-15. Wild seedlings of C. arborea about 6 in. high, each with a cluster of pink nodules 1–2 mm. long near the crown, were collected from a rocky roadside cutting near Nelson, and grown in quartz sand watered with a minus-nitrogen culture solution. Results from exposing these plants to an isotopically enriched atmosphere are given in Table 1. There was considerable fixation of nitrogen, which may have occurred in the leafy shoots as well as in the roots.