XVI International Botanical Congess

Since the earliest days of research on nitrogen fixation by legumes, effort has been largely confined to a relatively small number of herbaceous, temperate crop species, such as soybeans, peas, clovers and alfalfa. Mainly from laboratory experiments, we now know a great deal about how nodule formation and functioning are controlled in these. We know less about how these controls operate in the field and even less about the great diversity of legumes, which appear to operate successfully in extreme environments. Flooding, low phosphorus and low pH/high A1 will be used as examples to show that a knowledge of how plants react to stress, coupled with a search for stress resistant genotypes may allow targeted manipulation of legumes for both productivity and environmental protection..