Characteristics of two fungi producing ectendomycorrhizae in Pinus resinosa

Abstract

Two unidentified, imperfect fungi were isolated from 3-year-old nursery seedlings of red pine. One, referred to as BDG-58, appears to be very similar to the E-strain fungus isolated by Mikola in Finland. It is light brown in culture with septate, smooth to verrucose hyphae, 4.4–8.8 microns (μ) in diameter. It produces large spherical chlamydospores, 45–100 μ in diameter, in a peat moss – vermiculite – nutrient medium substrate used in mycorrhizal synthesis experiments with red pine. Chlamydospores are terminal on chains of 3–15 supporting cells. Associated with the roots, chlamydospores are more variable in form, being terminal and solitary, occasionally sessile, or intercalary. The intercalary may be either solitary or in chains. This fungus forms ectendomycorrhizae which possess a coarse Hartig net and coarse, heavily branched intracellular hyphae.The second fungus, referred to as BDD-22, is black in culture with smooth or minutely echinulate hyphae mostly 3 μ in diameter and torulous (or moniliform) hyphae 6.6 μ in diameter. Conidiophores and conidia are abundant in modified Hagem's liquid medium at 6 months. Conidiophores are semimacronematous, solitary or branched, 20–70 μ long, greenish-black and smooth. Conidiogenous cells are phialidic and collarettes are readily discernible. Chlamydospore-like cells are common, solitary or in chains. The fungus, tentatively identified as a Chloridium, forms ectendomycorrhizae which possess fine intercellular hyphae and masses of spherical intracellular bodies which are spore-like in appearance.