Advances in plant sciences

Abstract

Within this special issue of NZJA entitled ‘Advances in Plant Sciences’ we present a collection of papers which bring new science to the discipline of grassland plants. Of the 14 papers contained in this issue, 6 relate specifically to clovers and legumes, 3 to clovers and grasses, 3 to grasses and weeds and 2 to a forages. It is interesting and encouraging to note the dominance of grassland legume based studies in this issue. Although globally contemporary agriculture has a strong dependence on fertiliser nitrogen (N) for plant N nutrition, it appears that legumes still have a major importance in our grazed grasslands, both in terms of N inputs to the systems via N₂ fixation, but also to the high quality feed value of the legumes for grazing farm animals. Subject matter in this issue covers a broad spectrum in the discipline of plant sciences. These include field comparisons of clover cultivars, Lucerne or clover/grass mixes, rhizobia, germination requirements, plant metal tolerances, pasture/animal effects, root investigations, plant breeding, herbicide resistance and plant pests.