Mycorrhizal Associations of Selected Plant Species from San Miguel Island, Channel Islands National Park, California

Abstract

Vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) were detected in six native plant species: Camissonia cheiranthifolia ssp. cheiranthifolia, Coreopsis gigantea, Distichlis spicata, Dudleya greenei, Eriogonum grande ssp. rubescens, and Lavatera assurgentiflora. Levels of root colonization were greater in November than in July. No mycorrhizae were apparent in plants of Cakile maritima, Mesembryanthemum crystallinum , or M. nodiflorum. A total of ten species of VAM fungi , three of them undescribed, were recovered from root zones of Dudleya, Coreopsis, and Lavatera. Genera of fungi included Entrophospora, Glomus, and Scutellospora. The reinvasion of barren areas of the island from which some native plant species were extirpated by overgrazing and erosion may be dependent upon the reestablishment of a population of VAM fungi.