Species Diversity of Micromycetes Associated with <i>Epipactis helleborine</i> and <i>Epipactis purpurata</i> (Orchidaceae, Neottieae) in Southwestern Poland
2020
Rafał Ogórek | Klaudia Kurczaba | Zbigniew Łobas | Elżbieta Żołubak | Anna Jakubska-Busse
The Orchidaceae family is a diverse family of flowering plants that occur naturally in most parts of the world. However, fungal communities inhabiting different parts of orchids are not sufficiently described. The aim of the study was to conduct a mycological evaluation of <i>Epipactis helleborine</i> and <i>E. purpurata</i> (Orchidaceae), which grow naturally in Lower Silesia (SW Poland), by identifying the species composition of the culturable micromycetes fungi on the surfaces of the plants and from the inner layers of the tissues. Fungi were identified based on a phenotypic and genotypic analysis. To our knowledge, this is the first such analysis. This study showed that more species of micromycetes were cultured from <i>E. helleborine</i> compared with <i>E. purpurata</i>. The flowering plants of <i>E. helleborine</i> were inhabited by the largest number of culturable fungal species (13 species), and the fewest species were isolated from the flowering plants of <i>E. purpurata</i> (eight species). Some of these fungal species may be pathogens of the plants. The surface tissues of the orchids were mainly inhabited by <i>Mucor moelleri</i> and/or <i>Penicillium biourgeianum</i>. The inner layers of these plants were the most colonized by <i>Alternaria tenuissima</i> and/or <i>Arthrinium arundinis</i> and/or <i>Fusarium sporotrichioides</i>. The relative dominance of these fungal species depended mainly on the development phase of the plants.
Show more [+] Less [-]AGROVOC Keywords
Bibliographic information
This bibliographic record has been provided by Directory of Open Access Journals