There is one type of bean plant that grow by itself in my house compound last time. Fortunately I decided to leave the bean plant grow all over my house compound last time after seeing the nodules on the roots. As it turned out that the wild bean plant does helps to fertilize the soil in my house compound. I even manage to get almost 1 to 2 inch of thick black fertilized soil on the surface of the original soil in my house compound. All thanks to the unidentified wild bean plants.
From wikipedia [1]:
Within legume nodules, nitrogen gas from the atmosphere is converted into ammonia, which is then assimilated into amino acids (the building blocks of proteins), nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA and RNA as well as the important energy molecule ATP), and other cellular constituents such as vitamins, flavones, and hormones. Their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen makes legumes an ideal agricultural organism as their requirement for nitrogen fertilizer is reduced [1].
Plants that contribute to nitrogen fixation include the legume family – Fabaceae – with taxa such as kudzu, clovers, soybeans, alfalfa, lupines, peanuts, and rooibos. They contain symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia within the nodules, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow and compete with other plants. When the plant dies, the fixed nitrogen is released, making it available to other plants and this helps to fertilize the soil [1].
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The close up looks of nodules on this bean plant roots. |