Percent legume is often the lowest rated indicator of the ten used by the USDA-NRCS pasture condition score sheet to determine pasture condition. This paper emphasizes the importance of legumes in pasture plant communities to rekindle awareness of the benefits of maintaining an adequate legume component. Legumes maintain soil nitrogen reserves, enhance livestock nutrition by improving the quantity and quality of forage, and improve soil health. For soil N replenishment and good livestock nutrition, minimum percent legume should be 35 for temperate pastures and 20 for tropical and subtropical pastures. The paper will also explore the reasons why legumes do not persist in pasture swards. The problem of maintaining consistent legume content at appropriate levels is multi-faceted - grazing management that works against legume survival, changing environmental conditions that either increase or reduce legume content in pasture stands, fertility management that favors grasses over legumes, and a complex of diseases and insects that weaken and kill legumes.