Fungal communities of symptomless bark of tropical trees

Abstract

The fungi associated with the bark (phellophytes) of fifteen dicotyledonous tree species of a dry thorn, dry deciduous and a stunted montane evergreen forest of the Western Ghats, southern India, were studied. The species diversity of the phellophytes was higher for the montane evergreen forest when compared with dry thorn and dry deciduous forests. Although many fungal species were present in the bark of different tree species, most of them had a low frequency of isolation and only a few were isolated with high frequencies. Species of Phoma and Phomopsis, Fusarium and Paecilomyces and sterile forms EGS1 and EGS3 were isolated with high frequency from dry thorn, dry deciduous and a stunted montane evergreen forest respectively. The dry thorn and dry deciduous forests, which are more arid and fire-prone, shared more phellophyte species than the dry deciduous and montane evergreen forests. The phellophyte assemblages of the different forests were distinct while those of six tree species of a family from one forest showed a high overlap. It appears that the environment, rather than the tree species, determines the phellophyte assemblage in these forests.