OBJECTIVETo study the arbuscular mycorrhiza and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with cultivated and wild Pinellia ternata in Guizhou province.

METHODWild and cultivated P. ternata roots were observed through staining and microscopic examination, the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi spores were isolated through wet thieving according to Gerdemann & Nicolson (1963), the spores were identified following the description of Schenck & Pérez (1988), and some previous publications.

RESULTThe typical arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) structure was showed according to a research of wild and cultivated P. ternata. In the survey of AM fungi species in the rhizosphere of wild and cultivated P. ternata, 3 genera and 21 species were found, 3 genera and 7 species were identified. 5 species of them belong to Glomus, 1 species belongs to Scutellospora, 1 species belongs to Gigaspora, including Glomus mosseae, G. intraradices, G. melanosporum, G. deserticola, G. aggregatum, Scutellospora castanea, Gigaspora albida, and one of them was a new record, i.e., Scutellospora castanea which was the dominant species in Bijie.

CONCLUSIONThe diversity of AM fungi between wild and cultivated Pinellia ternata was showed on this survey, the fungi associated with wild ones are different form the cultivated ones, such as Gigaspora albida only occurs in cultivated ones, Glomus melanosporum only occurs in wild ones, while Glomus mosseae and Glomus intraradices occur in both wild and cultivated ones, and there were specialization species in Bijie, all these can provide new though for solving degradation problem of cultivated Pinellia ternata.