Abstract:The cortical cells of stem nodule in Sesbania rostrata have chloroplasts that containstacking grana thylakoid membrane and granular starch.The stem nodules with capacity ofphotosynthesis contains only little chlorophyll.The contents of chlorophyll among differentstages of nodule development have little difference.However,there are great differencesamong tkeir nitrogenaseactivity,their morphological structure and the quantity of bacterioldin the tissue containing rhizobia. The results show that the difference between their nitroge-nase activity at different stages of nodule development depend mainly on the bacteriold derel-opment and the quantity of bacterioid in the tissues containing rhizobia.