nitrogen fixer
Every article and hero in Arborpedia that touches this subject.
№ 007TreesAlder: The Nitrogen-Fixing Wet-Site Pioneer
How alder partners with Frankia bacteria to fix nitrogen, hold stream banks, and turn waterlogged ground into fertile soil for the trees that come next.
Nov 2025Read →
№ 068TreesCasuarina: The She-Oak That Is Neither Pine Nor Oak
An Australian tree that mimics a conifer, fixes nitrogen without being a legume, whistles in the wind, holds the coast together — and smothers beaches where it does not belong.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 150TreesElaeagnus: The Silver-Leaved Nitrogen Fixers That Went Rogue
Tough silvery shrubs that fix their own nitrogen without being legumes, bear tart edible berries, and were planted everywhere for wildlife and reclamation — before autumn olive and Russian olive became runaway invaders.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 157TreesFaidherbia: The Fertiliser Tree That Grows Backwards
A Sahelian acacia that does everything the wrong way round — dropping its leaves in the rainy season and leafing up in the dry — so that crops thrive right beneath it, fed by its nitrogen and shaded by nothing. Africa's great 'evergreen agriculture' tree.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 158TreesFalcataria: One of the Fastest-Growing Trees on Earth
A nitrogen-fixing tropical legume that can grow seven metres in a year — a prized fast plantation timber and shade tree that has also become a towering, brittle invader of Pacific islands.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 275TreesMaackia: The Iron-Hard Legume for the Coldest Cities
A small, tough, exceptionally cold-hardy legume from Manchuria — shrugging off deep winters, poor soil, and city streets, fixing its own nitrogen, and flowering white in high summer when little else does.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 337TreesPadauk: The Blood-Red Wood of Drums and Bleeding Bark
A nitrogen-fixing legume whose freshly-cut heartwood is a vivid blood-orange-red, prized for instruments and fine woodwork — and whose wounded bark weeps a red 'kino' gum like dragon's blood.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 366TreesPongamia: The Nitrogen-Fixing Tree That Might Actually Fuel Us
A tough coastal legume whose oil-rich seeds lit lamps and repelled pests for centuries — now seriously pursued as a biofuel and reforestation tree, having learned the hard lessons of the jatropha bust.
Jul 2026Read →
№ 480TreesTagasaste: The Evergreen Fodder Tree That Feeds Stock and Bees
A fast, drought-hardy Canary Islands legume — 'tree lucerne' — that fixes nitrogen, stays green and leafy through summer drought when pasture fails, and pours winter nectar for bees.
Jul 2026Read →