25 genera distributed among 8 plant families. According to a count in 1998, it includes about 200 species and accounts for roughly the same amount of nitrogen fixation as rhizobial symbioses. An important structural difference is that in these symbioses the bacteria are never released from the infection thread. Parasponia, a tropical genus in the Cannabaceae is also able to interact with rhizobia and form nitrogen-fixing nodules. As related plants are actinorhizal, it is believed that the plant "switched partner" in its evolution. The ability to fix nitrogen is far from universally present in these families. For instance, of 122 genera in the Rosaceae, only 4 genera are capable of fixing nitrogen. All these families belong to the orders Cucurbitales, Fagales, and Rosales, which together with the Fabales form a nitrogen-fixing clade (NFC) of eurosids. In this clade, Fabales were the first lineage to branch off; thus, the ability to fix nitrogen may be plesiomorphic and subsequently lost in most descendants of the original nitrogen-fixing plant; however, it may be that the basic genetic and physiological requirements were present in an incipient state in the last common ancestors of all these plants, but only evolved to full function in some of them: Classification Two main types of nodule have been described in legumes: determinate and indeterminate. Determinate nodules are found on certain tribes of tropical legume such as those of the genera Glycine (soybean), Phaseolus (common bean), and Vigna. and on some temperate legumes such as Lotus. These determinate nodules lose meristematic activity shortly after initiation, thus growth is due to cell expansion resulting in mature nodules which are spherical in shape. Another type of determinate nodule is found in a wide range of herbs, shrubs and trees, such as Arachis (peanut). These are always associated with the axils of lateral or adventitious roots and are formed following infection via cracks where these roots emerge and not using root hairs. Their internal structure is quite different from those of the soybean type of nodule. Indeterminate nodules are found in the majority of legumes from all three sub-families, whether in temperate regions or in the tropics. They can be seen in Faboideae legumes such as Pisum (pea), Medicago (alfalfa), Trifolium (clover), and Vicia (vetch) and all mimosoid legumes such as acacias, the few nodulated caesalpinioid legumes such as partridge pea. They earned the name "indeterminate" because they maintain an active apical