Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => The Eco-Garden => Topic started by: PermieGing on August 25, 2013, 07:47:28 PM
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The leguminosae family is the third largest plant family in the world, containing over 730 genera; some of which are quite interesting :)
Members of the legume family have a symbiotic relationship with specific microorganisms that colonize little bb bullet sized nodules on the root of the plant. These microorganisms intake atmospheric Nitrogen and exchange this with the plants supply of starches, while the legume plant consumes the nitrogen; once the plant dies or is choped and dropped, it adds organic nitrogen rich biomass to the soil, making legumes extremely important in any type of natural gardening.
Legume flowers are generally very simliar and noticable, while also being a quick way for a partial ID, typically. White clover, which im sure most of us are familiar with, has little white balls of many of these similiar and noticable flowers. The flowers almost have like a toungue. After you observe an average legume flower enough, you will start to see very similiar flowers everywhere!
Another easy and noticable quick tip to legume ID is the seed pods. Legumes very often produce and contain their seed inside of pods.
However, possibly the best way to ID a legume is to look to see if the plant has any BB root nodules growing, on its roots.
All of these are great tips i have gathered ime
Pic 1, 2, and 3: average legume flowers
Pic 4: average legume seed pod
Pic 5: legume root nodules
I hope this helps to IDing and growing native legumes throughout your garden and food forest :)
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Very nice post, thank you. :)
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:)
Thanks !
Hope this helps
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Thanks for the post, leguminosae (aka fabaceae) are awesome helpers, and definitely a staple in permaculture work. Lots of properties as pioneering plants, and including many interesting species in the ethnobotanical spectrum such as the species in genus Acacia, Mimosa or Desmodium, among others.
One correction, if I may:
The leguminosae family is the third largest plant family in the world, containing over 730 species
That figure is the approximated number of accepted genera in leguminosae, not the species count. The current species count in the leguminosae family exceeds 23,000.
Kind regards,
Mandrake
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Ahh your right. Those figures were from wiki though. My mistake; meant genera
Edit: fixed it :)
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Just wanted to add a reminder about inoculation.
In order for Legumes to fix nitrogen the seeds need to be inoculated with nitrogen fixing bacteria (Diazotrophs). Some soils will already have the bacteria present and the seeds will be inoculated upon germination, but this is not always the case. Even if the soil already has a concentration of Diazotrophs inoculating the seeds before sowing usually produces more nitrogen fixing nodes. Soaking in a diluted amount of EM for a day or sowing with dried cow manure (fresh manure will kill seed normally) is a cheap way to inoculate without having to buy a specific inoculant.
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Nitrogen fixing cover crops are awesome, but to benifit from them, they sould be cut/tilled before flowering or setting seed. Nitrogen accumulation in a legume crop typically reaches its peak at one to two weeks before the crop sets flower.
I see many plants like the Siberian Pea tree touted as N fixing, which it is but you will only benfit from it by cutting it down before flower. A plant that takes years to flower !
Be carefull