Occurrence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in selected plant species from Bimbol iron ore mine of Goa

Abstract

We surveyed the prevalence of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in ten plant species viz., Calotropis gigantea, Calycopteris floribunda, Careya arborea, Chromolaena odoratum, Delonix regia, Microcos paniculata, Mimosa pudica, Randia rugulosa, Terminalia paniculata and Terminalia crenulata from a 45 year old Bimbol iron ore mine in Goa. All the plant species undertaken for the study showed AM colonization at varying levels ranging between 18 percent (Calotropis gigantean) to 67 percent (Terminalia paniculata) while, the spore density ranged from 14 spores (Chromolaena odoratum) to 59 spores (Calotropis gigantea) per 25 grams of rhizosphere soil. A total of 31 AM fungal species belonging to four genera viz., Acaulospora, Gigaspora, Glomus and Scutellospora were recovered during the study. The most common AM fungal species was Glomus macrocarpum which occurred in 9 out of 10 plant species followed by Acaulospora scrobiculata which occurred in 6 out of 10 plant species.