In several leguminous plants such as acasia, arrowroot and bushclover, growth rate and contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the tissues and the variation in the culture media were determined. In water culture which was free of added nutr...
In several leguminous plants such as acasia, arrowroot and bushclover, growth rate and contents of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in the tissues and the variation in the culture media were determined. In water culture which was free of added nutrients, nitrogen was found to be largely in the form of nitrate(NO_3-N). This NO_3-N is believed to be the result of nitrification from NH_4-N which was apparently released from the plants. From the studies of organ culture with root segments, the amount of nitrogen released and absorbed was found to be proportional to the amount added to the medium. Especially, in the N-plot, the amount of nitrogen absorbed by the tissue reached more than 90% of the amount supplied tothe medium already in early stage. On the contrary, in the nitrogen free plot, the amount of nitrogen released from the tissue was lower than the minimum level in the N-plot. The amount of total N and P in the cultured tissue was found to be influenced by the amount of nitrogen added in the medium. However, the amount of K in the tissue was not related to the nitrogen level in the medium, but rather it was influenced by the amount of added potassium. These findings present little difference in the metabolic pattern among the three species plants studied, and suggest that the woody leguminous plants have some common feature in their metabolic pattern.