Abstract
The objectives of this study were to investigate the morphology of mycorrhizal roots, and the effects of root age and soil texture on the mycorrhizal infection in ginseng (Panax ginseng C. A. Meyer) growing in Korea. Ginseng roots at ages of two to six years were collected from fields in late June. Their infection by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi(AMF) was studied by clearing the roots and staining fungal hyphae with trypan blue. Root infection varied greatly depending on the developmental stages of young roots. Young tertiary roots, in diameter of smaller than 0.8 mrn, formed during the current growing season had root hairs and were frequently and in some cases heavily infected by AMF. Hyphal coils and arbuscules were abundant, while vesicles were rarely observed. Older secondary or tertiary roots in diameter of bigger than 1.0 mm with fully differentiated primary xylem formed during the previous growing season had no root hairs, and were not infected at all. The rates of mycorrhizal infection in the young tertiary roots were not affected by the age of the ginseng plants, suggesting that fungal populations might have not much changed during the aging of the cultivated fields up to six years. The differences in the infection rates among the different ages of ginseng were caused by differences in the amount of young tertiary roots in the samples. Soil texture, either sandy loam or clay loam, did not affect the rate of root infection. There were large variations in the infection rates among the different farms and locations within a farm. It strongly suggested that infection rates of the ginseng roots by AMF would be influenced by the practice of the farmers, possibly by avoiding consecutive planting, introduction of new topsoil, and the ways of handling the soil before transplanting the ginseng, such as fumigation or sterilization that might have affected indigenous inoculum sources of the AMF.
