the effect of mycohrizal symbiosis on water uptake efficiency and some growth traits of osteospermum (osteospermum hybrida ‘passion mix’)

to study the effect of different arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi on growth performance and water absorption efficiency of osteospermum, a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design was conducted in greenhouse. a total of 22 different species of mycorrhizal fungi in symbiosis with the plant studied in this experiment. the results showed that mycorrhiza fungus glomus mossea ca and glomus mossea st6 had a significant effect on growth indices of osteospermum compared to the others. inoculation of osteospermum plants with the fungus glomus mossea ca improved the water use efficiency better than other species of mycorrhizal fungi. despite the low rates of colonization in inoculated plants with fungus glomus sp st2 and its insignificant impact on the characteristics of this plant, high water absorption efficiency was observed. fungus glomus mossea st2 and glomus sp st2 had no effective symbiotic relationship with this plant. furthermore, plants inoculated with the fungus glomus mossea st6 had significantly higher root length, root fresh weight and root surface compared to the plants inoculated with other strains. thus, it was shown that different species of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi depending on the species used, can lead to improve some growth traits in this plant.