Adesmia latifolia is a forage legume native from Southern Brazil which is outstanding due to stoloniferous growth habit and for forage production during the cool season. The Lotus corniculatus (birdsfoot trefoil) is a forage usually utilized as cool season species in subtropical and temperate regions. For both species, however, there is a reduced number of scientific works related to the nodule type and biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). This work had the purpose to analyze such processes in these species and also to compare their morphological development under different nitrogen sources: mineral-N (ammonium nitrate - 5%), symbiotic-N (inoculation) and without nitrogen (control). The experiment was carried out in greenhouse conditions, utilizing Leonard Jars with nutritive solution; the substrate consisted of mixture of sand, vermiculite and charcoal. It was a randomized complete design with four replications. At the end of 65 days the plants were harvested and evaluated for length and volume of roots, number and weight of nodules, dry matter (DM) accumulation and BNF. A. latifolia stand out for the character number of nodules (126/jar) and total nodule weight (82.22 mg DM/jar) as compared to birdsfoot trefoil with 82 nodules/jar and 20.25 mg DM/jar. The BNF was more effective in A. latifolia, whose inoculated plants produced an average of 37% of DM that was obtained by plants supplied with mineral-N, while birdsfoot reached only 15% of DM production with BNF. The amount of symbiotic fixed nitrogen was 43.12 mg N/jar in Adesmia and 9.92 mg in birdsfoot trefoil.
legume; pasture; symbiosis
