Mycorrhizas in hill-country soils

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Thirty-seven hill-country soils were examined for spores of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Spore types of six species were found, in the genera Glomus, Gigaspora, Acaulospora, and Sclerocystis, Glomus fasciculatus and Acaulospora laevis being the most common and having the highest number of spores. No spore types were exclusive to soils with efficient mycorrhizal fungi and absent from soils with inefficient fungi. Non-sporing strains of mycorrhizal fungi may be common in soils and mycorrhizal infection may often occur after hyphal growth from infected root segments rather than from spores.