Plant-microbe community dynamics influence the natural succession of plant species where pioneer vegetation facilitates the establishment of a distantly related, later successional plant species. This has been observed in the case of restoration of the American chestnut (Castanea dentata) on abandoned mine land where Virginia pine (Pinus virginiana) facilitated the establishment of chestnut see...

Biological invasions are a rapidly increasing driver of global change, yet fundamental gaps remain in our understanding of the factors determining the success or extent of invasions. For example, although most woody plant species depend on belowground mutualists such as mycorrhizal fungi and nitrogen-fixing bacteria, the relative importance of these mutualisms in conferring invasion success is ...

Dust seeds that germinate by obtaining nutrients from symbiotic fungi have evolved independently in orchids and 11 other plant lineages. The fungi involved in this 'mycoheterotrophic' germination have been identified in some orchids and non-photosynthetic Ericaceae, and proved identical to mycorrhizal fungi of adult plants. We investigated a third lineage, the Pyroleae, chlorophyllous Ericaceae...

Root elongation was measured in mature Eucalyptus pauciflora Sieber ex Sprengel subsp. pauciflora trees in a high-elevation stand, and in seedlings of E. pauciflora and E. nitens (Deane & Maiden) grown in a glasshouse. Elongation of non-mycorrhizal roots (>10 mm long) was measured at 0600 and 1800 h on several consecutive days. Root elongation of seedlings of both species in the glasshouse was ...

The lush green vegetation of moist tropical forest is not what it appears. Dissolve away all the plant matter from the dense foliage, giant buttressed trunks, tangled lianas, and sinuous roots, and a ghostly fungal shadow of the forest will remain. These fungi—diverse symbionts that include mutualists, commensals, and parasites—play critical roles in the dynamics, diversity, structure, and func...

The study examined the effect of Frankia, macronutrients, micronutrients, mycorrhizal fungi, and plant-growth-promoting fluorescent Pseudomonas sp. on total biomass, nodule weight, and nitrogen fixation of red alder (Alnus rubra) and snowbrush (Ceanothus velutinus) under greenhouse conditions. The soil samples were collected from a 10-year-old clearcut on the H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest, O...

Zizyphus spina-christi (Rhamnaceae) grows wild in tropical Africa and Asia and can be domesticated. It has folkloric usage in pain related ailments throughout these regions. In view of the claimed therapeutic potentials, investigation of the plant’s root bark was initiated in our laboratory. The plant material was first sequentially extracted with hexane, chloroform, ethylacetate and methanol, ...