There is a rich diversity of crops around the world that need examination, you never know what you'll find.
There is a rich diversity of crops around the world that need examination, you never know what you'll find.
How is this different from other nitrogen-fixing species that are already known? Some olives, plenty of legumes such as soy beans, clover and alfalfa all have symbiotic relationships with bacteria for this.
It does it in a radically different way - pulling bacteria up from the soil into weird drippy goo from roots dangling midair. The video and various articles aren't totally clear on this point, but it suggests it can pull a lot more nitrogen out of the air than other known nitrogen fixing plants (which keep the bacteria underground on their roots).
The video of the natural form of this showed what appeared to be some very wet slime that was fully exposed to the open air. I'm guessing extra water requirements to keep this mass wet for the bacteria would be prohibitive at modern farming scales.