Daisy relatives host far more helpful root fungi than nettles
Palta Ş, Baş E, Yavaşcı Z
Mycorrhizal Networks
The daisies, dandelions, and asters blooming in your backyard or the roadside ditch are quietly running a far more productive underground fungal partnership than the nettles growing right next to them, which could explain why some patches of a mixed meadow thrive while others struggle.
Most plants team up with tiny soil fungi that help them pull in water and nutrients, but this study found that which plant family you belong to makes a huge difference in how many of these fungi show up. Plants in the daisy family had almost eight times more fungal spores in their root zone than plants in the nettle family, and soil factors like acidity and salt levels tracked closely with how many fungi were present. The same five fungal species turned up everywhere, but how diverse and evenly spread they were shifted depending on the host plant and its neighborhood soil chemistry.
Key Findings
AMF spore density ranged from 609.8 spores per 50g soil in Asteraceae (highest) to 77.6 spores per 50g soil in Urticaceae (lowest), an eightfold difference
Spore density correlated positively with soil pH (r=0.47) and negatively with electrical conductivity (r=-0.49), available potassium (r=-0.44), and total nitrogen (r=-0.40)
Five AMF species (Acaulospora tuberculata, Claroideoglomus etunicatum, Funneliformis geosporum, Glomus sp., Rhizophagus clarus) were found across all five plant families, while diversity and evenness peaked in Lamiaceae and species richness peaked in Urticaceae
chevron_right Technical Summary
Researchers found that the fungi living in plant roots that help absorb nutrients vary dramatically depending on which plant family they're partnered with, with daisy-family plants hosting nearly eight times more fungal spores than nettle-family plants in the same field.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Plant family identity drives arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal spore abundance and community structure in natural rangelands.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are important components of belowground biotic networks, yet variation in AMF spore abundance and community structure among plant families in natural rangelands r...
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