Symbiotic competence of rose clover (Trifolium hirtum All.)

J. Brockwell; N. A. Fettell; Alison M. Bowman; W. Smith; G. Sweeney; N. Charman; R. A. Ballard

doi:10.1071/AR07469

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Symbiotic competence of rose clover (Trifolium hirtum All.)

J. Brockwell ^A ^F , N. A. Fettell ^B , Alison M. Bowman ^C , W. Smith ^D , G. Sweeney ^E , N. Charman ^E and R. A. Ballard ^E ^F

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A CSIRO Plant Industry, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

^B NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agricultural Research and Advisory Station, PO Box 300, Condobolin, NSW 2877, Australia.

^C NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agricultural Institute, PMB, Pine Gully Road, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2650, Australia.

^D NSW Department of Primary Industries, Agricultural Research Centre, PMB No. 19, Trangie, NSW 2823, Australia.

^E South Australian Research and Development Institute, GPO Box 397, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.

^F Corresponding authors. Email: jbrockwell@grapevine.net.au; ballard.ross@saugov.sa.gov.au

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 59(9) 802-813 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR07469
Submitted: 19 December 2007 Accepted: 5 June 2008 Published: 26 August 2008

Abstract

Rose clover (Trifolium hirtum All.) is a forage plant that is well adapted to acidic and mildly alkaline soils of low natural fertility in southern Australia and to climates with a winter-dominant annual rainfall of 300 mm and above. Reports of low concentrations of nitrogen in rose clover foliage have been attributed to poor N₂ fixation and may have discouraged its use in Australia.

This investigation, conducted in tube culture, examined the ability of four lines of rose clover to nodulate and fix N₂ with effective strains of clover rhizobia (Rhizobium leguminosarum bv. trifolii) and with soils (as a source of naturalised rhizobia) collected from field sites in New South Wales and South Australia. Comparisons with other Trifolium spp. were also made.

It was confirmed that there was a low concentration of N in the shoots of the rose clover cvv. SARDI Rose and Hykon. This occurred even where rose clover nodulated and fixed N₂ effectively with well known inoculant strains of clover rhizobia and with soil samples collected in the field (provided that the populations of resident clover rhizobia in the soil were at least 150/g). Individual plants were uniform in response to inoculation. Rose clover cv. SARDI Rose was closely related to six of the nine other lines of clover with which it was compared.

It was concluded that the registered cultivars of rose clover, cvv. SARDI Rose and Hykon, are symbiotically competent plants. It appears that low N in rose clover foliage is an intrinsic characteristic of the species unconnected with its symbiotic characteristics.

Additional keywords: inoculation, inoculum potential, nitrogen fixation, nodulation, symbiotic performance, symbiotic relatedness, Trifolium cherleri, T. glomeratum, T. michelianum, T. pilulare.

Acknowledgments

We thank Craig Hunt, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Wollongbar, NSW, for nitrogen analyses, and Jane Rasmussen who assisted with the presentation of Table 9.

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Symbiotic competence of rose clover (Trifolium hirtum All.)

Abstract

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