Endogone pisiformis: axenic culture and associations with Sphagnum, Pinus sylvestris, Allium cepa, and Allium porrum

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Abstract
E. pisiformis is described in pure culture on various normal mycological media. The usually coenocytic mycelium is characteristically colored yellow and bears numerous lipid-filled hyphal swellings. Under axenic conditions, hyphae are attracted to Sphagnum, but the fungus has neither sporulated on nor parasitized the Sphagnum. E. pisiformis does not form ectomycorrhizae under the conditions studied with inoculated P. sylvestris although the fungus may survive in its rhizosphere. Germinated A. porrum and A. cepa seeds, moribund roots, and shoots were colonized by E. pisiformis which formed densely branched, fine hyphal structures and lipid-filled hyphal swelling within these plant tissues. The possibility is raised that these structures are homologous to the arbuscules and vesicles of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Examination of other Endogone species may elucidate the phylogeny of this genus.