Studies of fungi in pasture soils

The fungi colonising plant debris in New Zealand pasture soils were studied by a washing and isolation technique. Differences between fungi occurring at different seasons in one soil were small. Three fungi, Paecilomyces carneus, Gliocìadium roseum , and Cladosporium sp. occurred on debris in all the soils examined, but others occurred in some but not all soils. The length of hyphae per g of soil differed greatly at different seasons and in different soils. Many of the hyphae are probably of vesicular‐arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. A method for making isolations of fungi from hyphae present in soil is described. Few of the extracted hyphae germinated, probably because some were dead and others were of vesicular‐arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi which do not grow in culture media. Flotation methods extracted large Endogone ‐like spores and micro‐sclerotia from the three pasture soils examined.