Word: rhizobium
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There are other attractions. As a legume, the winged bean converts its own nitrogen from the atmosphere, thanks to a happy symbiosis with guest Rhizobium bacteria in the plant's potato-like tubers. Consequently, it needs no fertilizer and even enriches the soil in which it grows. Any parts picky humans do not want to eat can be fed to cattle. As Horticulturist Jack Kelly of the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences puts it, "It's like the butcher's pig. Everything's useful but the oink...
NITROGEN FIXATION. At present only legumes such as peas, beans and alfalfa-with the aid of a soil-dwelling bacterium called rhizobium-are known to be naturally capable of fixing nitrogen from the air-joining it to other substances to form compounds necessary for plant growth. Most other plants must obtain their nitrogen from natural and man-made fertilizers. But scientists are seeking to give more plants this nitrogen-fixing ability. At Utah's Brigham Young University, biologists are attempting to "infect" other species of plants with rhizobia. Scientists in England have isolated the segment of the rhizobial...
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