Abstract
The orchidaceae (orchid family) is the second largest family of flowering plants after the Asteraceae. Orchids are important in herbal medicine, the food industry, perfumery industry and as ornamentals. They rely on mycorrhizal fungi to provide the carbon sources for seed germination and seedling establishment. The Mount Cameroon Region has a rich diversity of orchids which is under threats from land use patterns. This study was aimed at (i) identifying fungi associated with orchid mycorrhiza; and (ii) identifying non-mycorrhizal endophytic fungi. Nine species of orchids were selected for this study, three each from the different life forms. Selection criteria were based on vulnerability, scarcity and abundance. Mycorrhizal and non-myccorrhizal endophytic fungi were isolated from dissected single pelotons and from non-peloton root tissues respectively. Identification of fungi was based on morphological and sequencebased molecular methods. A total of 18 fungi species belonging to 12 genera were identified with Penicillium being the most abundant. The inferred phylogenetic tree grouped all endophytes into 9 major clusters belonging to 2 phyla. Clustering was independent of whether endophytes were mycorrhizal or non-mycorrhizal. The results of this study could contribute to orchid conservation and for the discovery of bioactive compounds.
Highlights
The Orchidaceae is the second largest family of flowering plants after Asteraceae
This study aims at identifying fungi associated with orchid mycorrhizal endophytes and identifying the much-neglected non-mycorrhizal endophytic fungi in orchids from mount Cameroon, following the increasing interest in their physiological roles and their potential as sources of novel bioactive compounds
We identified endophytic fungi associated with orchids from the Mount Cameroon Region
Summary
The Orchidaceae (the orchids’ family) is the second largest family of flowering plants after Asteraceae. In Europe, the Greeks referred to testicles as orchis, and Theophrastus (372–286 BC) named the orchids from that word, as the underground tubers of many European terrestrial orchids resemble a pair of testicles (Theophrastus, 1664) In his Enquiry into Plants, he reported that the orchids had medicinal properties (Reinikka, 1995). In the first century AD, Dioscorides, who was a Greek working as a Roman military physician, wrote his De Materia Medica, including two terrestrial orchids (Berliocchi, 2004). He adopted and promoted the ‘Doctrine of Signatures’ whereby plants were used for medicinal purposes according to their resemblance to parts of the human anatomy, for example by shape or color. Vanill planifolia is a commercially important orchid used as flavoring in baking worldwide
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