干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

After assessing the current origin of perennial legumes in agricultural and rangeland systems of mediterranean regions, the authors have explored the use and availability, and briefly described the ecology of perennial legumes and other plant materials that have potential for the future of the old Mediterranean world in rangeland rehabilitation and also for Australian mediterranean zones that are facing problems with a rising saline watertable.

The current interest in range rehabilitation and in combating desertification in mediterranean regions fuels some hope for better utilisation of perennial legumes from sub-humid to arid mediterranean zones. Unlike European traditional farming systems that are economically stable and require very little innovation in terms of new plant material, the use, establishment and particularly long-term management of perennial herbaceous or woody legumes (creeping alfalfa, Hedysarum sp., Onobrychis sp., Medicago arborea, Cassia sp. and so on) in agriculture and on rangelands remains uncertain due to poor seed availability, limiting ecological factors and overriding socio-economic factors in the old mediterranean world. Plant material originating from the mediterranean environment at large, including Middle and Central Asia, and including plant families other than perennial legumes, should be tested for their potential to dewater saline and acid soils in Australia on a long-term basis.