Interrelationships among some ectomycorrhizal trees, hypogeous fungi and small mammals: Western Australian and northwestern American parallels

Species of the hypogeous fungus genus. Mesophellia have been shown to form ectomycorrhiza with Eucalyptus diversicolor and improve seedling growth. Since the morphology of these fungi increases their dependence on animal mycophagy for spore dispersal, these results imply a tripartite interrelationship between eucalypts, hypogeous fungi and marsupials which parallels the North American interrelationship between ectomycorrhizal pine, hypogeous fungi and rodents. An understanding of the independent but analogous interrelationships on the two continents has implications for forest management, especially in regard to the effects of forest conversion on other members of the ecosystem.