Nhu, I can't help wondering if the saprophytic fungal hyphae may exude some substance which inhibits stagonospora? But yes it could simply be competition that clears the staggy. It would be an interesting topic for research. Mark > Message du 25/12/13 21:43 > De : "Nhu Nguyen" > A : "Pacific Bulb Society" k > Copie à : > Objet : Re: [pbs] re Rainlilies & Stagonospora > > Merry Christmas everyone! > > I finally have some time to try and catch up with posts on the forum. This > response is a little late but I feel that its important to say a few things > about the topic of mycorrhizal fungi, which is what I study. > > Mycorrhizal fungi are divided into two groups, the ectomycorrhizal fungi > which associate with trees and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi which associate > with mostly herbs, grasses, and sometimes trees. Members of the pine family > such as pine, spruce, fir, douglas fir are obligately dependent on > ectomycorrhizal fungi and vice versa. However, it's hard to say that the > white hyphal threads you observe underneath pine/alder trees are > mycorrhizal. More often than not, they are saprobic fungi, and are only > interested in breaking down the dead leaves. > > The observation that leaf mould with white hyphae protects bulbs is > interesting and make good ecological sense. You're using one group of fungi > to outcompete another group. In this case, using saprobic fungi to > out-compete pathogenic fungi. The saprobic fungi will take over the growing > medium and excludes pathogenic fungi from entering the arena, thus > protecting the plants. For the most part, plant pathogens don't make > visible hyphae because the hyphae will grow inside the plant and not in the > substrate where they cannot compete well with saprobic fungi. > > Nhu _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/