Study on the growth of (Achillea millefolium L.) medicinal plant by soil inoculation of mountainous area with selected mycorrhizal fungi

In recent years, the use of soil microbial potential including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is widely considered to enhance the better growth and nutrition of plants. This research was conducted in order to study the impact of mycorrhizal fungi on the increase of yarrow production and the plant establishment affected by the symbiotic relationships between fungi and yarrow plant, based on factorial experiment as a randomized complete block (RCB) design with 4 treatments. Inoculated treatments included non-inoculated condition as control mode, inoculated with G. fasciculatum, G. mosseae and G. intraradice fungi. At the end of growth season, some growth parameters such as colonization, plant establishment, essential oil percentage and also morphological properties including fresh and dry weight of shoot and root and the root volume were measured. Results showed that the inoculation of Achillea millefolium L. with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have a significant effect on the measured parameters. This means that the inoculation with mycorrhizal fungi leads to increasing the plant establishment and essential oil percentage, fresh and dry weight of shoots and roots, and also the root volume compared to the control mode. It is noteworthy that among the three treatments done with fungi, the treatment of G. fasciculatum showed the most increase in the above parameters.