Abstract:
Twenty medicinal plants belonging to 16 angiospermic families were surveyed for the occurrence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. All the plants surveyed were colonised with arbuscular mycorrhizae. The colonization in shrubs and trees ranged from 47 to 98 percent and 29 to 85 percent respectively, whereas the spore density in the rhizosphere soil showed variation from 12 spores/l00g soil to 530 spores/l00g soil in shrubs and 13 spores/l00g soil to 464 spores/l00g soil in tree species. Species composition of AM fungi revealed the presence of four genera viz., Acaulospora, Glomus, Sclerocystis and Scutellospora in the rhizosphere soil of the medicinal plants studied.
