Richard Simons
Posts: 425
Joined: Oct. 2006
|
There are nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in nodules (they look like tumours) on the roots of legumes such as clovers, alfalfa, peas, beans and others. They get something like 1/3 of the sugars produced by the plant's photosynthesis but in return the plant gets a supply of nitrogen, which it can't extract from the air itself. Similar bacteria are also found with alders and a few other plants. The nitrogen fixation does not take place in the presence of free oxygen but the plant produces leghemoglobin, similar to hemoglobin, that supplies oxygen to the bacteria and gives the inside of the nodule a pinkish colour.
Many plants have fungi growing into the root and spreading out into the soil in a different symbiotic relationship. Like the bacteria, the fungi (known as vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhiza or VAMs) get their energy from the plant. In return, the fungi penetrate the soil more thoroughly than the plant roots and are significant in absorbing nutrients, in particular phosphorus.
I think Conservapedia got the two confused, exaggerated the importance of the fungi to the plant and gave a link to a third, completely different, symbiotic relationship.
--------------
All sweeping statements are wrong.
|
