Leaf colonising fungi of peat swamp forest
2004
M.Sepiah | Roha Lit
Observation on fungi colonising leaf surfaces of vegetation in peat swamp was carries out on leaves of various plants growing in the forest area. Green healthy leaves, senescent leaves and dead leaves were randomly collected from peat swamp forest (PSF) near UNIMAS (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak) temporary campus, at latitude 1 deg 27` N, 110 deg 27` E and altitude 34 m above sea level. The samples were collected three times within six-month period from June to December 1997. For every sampling, at least 30 leaves of each category were collected. Five segments, of about 1 square cm each, were cut randomly from each leaf blade. The leaf segments were surface sterilised, washed and air-dried before plated onto corn meal agar and potato carrot agar in Petri dishes. Fungi growing on the plated leaf segments were recorded, isolated and identified after one to four weeks in cubation at ambient temperature. Diverse species of fungi colonised the leaves of vegetation in the peat forest. A total of 58 genera consisting of 132 species were identified while more than 50 isolates are yet to be determined. The majority of the fungi belong to Deuteromycotina. The most common was of Botryodiplodia theobromae (60.7%), followed by Pestalotiopsis spp (28.7%), Trichoderma spp. (25.2%) and Nigrospora spp. (11.7%). Fungi such as Colletotrichum spp., Fusarium spp., Penicillium spp. and Septoria sp. also present but they were encountered on 5-10% of the total 900 plated leaf segments. Other fungi are found on less than 5% of the samples used. Several interesting genera, such as Cordinaea, Cryptophiale, Helicodendron, Wiesneriomyces, Speiropsis, Zygosporium etc. are present on the leaf surfaces and need to be studied further.
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