DefinePK

Abstract

The current study was conducted to isolate and identify fungi associated with roots of nursery plant in forest. Sampling was carried out in two main forest nurseries in Duhok province, Iraq. In Malta nursery, the most frequent fungus isolated from the roots of olive and pine seedlings was Macrophomina phaseolina with a percentage frequency 53% and 33%, respectively. Rhizoctonia solani colonized the root of both walnut (56%) and vertical cypress (39%). Roots of olive were colonized by Trichoderma harzianum (94%) and robenia with Fusarium poae (56%). In Forestry Department nursery, Fusarium species were the dominant fungi in almost all seedlings types. Robinia roots were colonized by Fusarium sp. and M. phaseolina with a percentage frequency of 54%, 38%, respectively. Fusarium poae , Fusarium sp. and F. oxysporum were prevalent on walnut, horizontal cyprees and pine roots with isolation frequency reached up to 33-39%. Other genera isolated from different host in low frequency were Phoma, Verticillium, Aspergillus and Cylindrocarpon. These results indicated that the most common genera colonized the roots of both forest seedlings belongs to different species of Macrophomina, Fusarium and Rhizoctonia.