THE INTERACTION OF HIGHER PLANTS AND SOIL MICRO-ORGANISMS: I. MICROBIAL POPULATION OF RHIZOSPHERE OF SEEDLINGS OF CERTAIN CULTIVATED PLANTS

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Abstract
The microbial population in the rhizosphere of wheat, oats, alfalfa, and peas was studied and the relative abundance of different types of micro-organisms recorded. By means of the plating method it was found that bacteria and actinomycetes were 7 to 71 times greater in the rhizosphere than in the soil distant from the roots, whereas fungi were but 0.75 to 3.1 times more numerous.Different varieties of plants affected the activity of the various groups of soil micro-organisms differently. Thus fungi were more numerous in the rhizosphere of oats, and bacteria in the rhizosphere of alfalfa. Seventeen genera of fungi were represented in isolates from the rhizosphere of seedlings and the soil distant from the roots. However, no marked difference was observed in the types isolated from the rhizosphere of different varieties of seedlings. A fungus isolated from the rhizosphere of alfalfa proved to be a new species and the genus Spicularia Persoon was amended to include it.