Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management World Bank assisted National Agricultural Research Project (NARP) - University of Port Harcourt ISSN: 1119-8362 Vol. 11, Num. 4, 2007, pp. 55-58

Journal of Applied Sciences and Environmental Management, Vol. 11, No. 4, 2007, pp. 55-58

Diversity of heart and root rot fungi on park and roadside trees in Maharashtra, India

* FOROUTAN, A.; ** JAFARY, N.

Department of Botany, University of Pune. Pune 411 007, India.
** Department of Biology, University of Mazandaran. Iran. jafarinaser@yahoo.com

*Corresponding author: Foroutan A.

Code Number: ja07094

ABSTRACT

In this present study 8 sites including Baneshwar, Dongarvadi, Dapoli-Dabhol road, Film institute-Pune, Karad, Mulshi, Pirangut and Poultry training center-Pune in Maharashtra state of India were selected by random to investigate the diversity of the heart and root rot fungi with special reference to Ganoderma and Phellinus species. On park and roadside trees. The healthy and infected trees (Trees associated with Conk/basidiocarp of Ganoderma and Phellinus) were counted by means of transect/quadrat. The tree communities was recorded as: Acacia nilotica, Albizzia lebbek Benth., Artocarpus integrifolia, Azadirachta indica., Buhinia purpurea, Caesalpinia coriuria, Casuarina equisetifolia, Dalbergia melanoxylon, Delonix regia, Ficus bengalensis, Gliricidia sepium, Mangifera indica, Peltophorum ferrugineum, Swietenia mahogany, and Tamaridus indica (more popular trees in the park and roadside). The diversity of the studied locations was found to be maximum in Dapoli-Dabhol road. The highest number tree species was found at Poultry training center-Pune. Mangifera indica was dominating amongst the studied tree species. Film Institute-Pune, showed to have the highest number of conk on the infected tree. Phellinus fastuosus was the most dominant fungi.

Heart and root rot are the most important diseases of live standing trees in park, roadside in Maharashtra of India. The diseases caused by many fungal species in which Ganoderma and Phellinus are the most important pathogens among the other fungal species. Species of Ganoderma and Phellinus have been reported as wood decay fungi throughout the world, particularly in tropical areas (Ivory, 1990; Bolland, 1984; Ryvarden, 2000; Smith, and Sivasithamparam, 2001). Rare species of Phellinus has been reported as a human disease agent (Sutton et all, 2005). They are the most dominant fungi, which cause responsible damages to trees in the forest, park and in urban sitting every year.

In India Heart rot of Acacia nilotica caused by Phellinus badius was reported by Bakshi (1976). Ganoderma applantum and G. philippi, the causal agents of Albizzia spp. were reported by Bakshi (1976) and Bhosle (2005) respectively. Phellinus calcitratus, P. carteri, P. chryseus, P. conchatus, P. conchatus Var. microsporus, P. shaferi, P. tropicalis and P. umbrinellus were reported from Mangifera indica (Rabba, 1994). In the present study quantitive analysis of species from the eight locations was used mainly dealt with the number of species and individuals, diversity and cluster analysis (http://www.sams.ac.uk, developed by Neil McAleece). The purpose of the present study was to investigate the diversity of the heart and root rot fungi on park and roadside trees in Maharashtra state with special reference to Ganoderma and Phellinus species.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the present study surveys were carried out in various regions of Maharashtra state during 2004-2006. Out of them 8 sites including Site1: Baneshwar (Roadside), site 2: Dongarvadi (Roadside), 3: Dapoli-Dabhol road, Dapoli-Dabhol road (Roadside), site 4: Film institute-Pune (Park), site 5: Karad (Park), site 6: Mulshi (Roadside), site 7: Pirangut (park), and site 8: Poultry Training Center (park) were selected by random to study the diversity of the heart and root rot fungi (Ganoderma and Phellinus species) on park and roadside trees. The healthy, infected trees (Trees associated with Conk/basidiocarp of Ganoderma and Phellinus) were counted by means of transect with 100 sq. meters (50 x 2) for roadside and 100 sq² (10 x 10) quadrat for park (Greenwood, 1996; Webb and Fa, aumu, 1999; Bolland, 1984; Ivory, 1990).

The tree communities were recorded on fifteen hosts including I. Acacia nilotica (L.) Del., II. Albizzia lebbek (L.) Benth., III. Artocarpus integrifolia L., IV. Azadirachta indica Juss., V. Buhinia purpurea L., VI. Caesalpinia coriuria (Jacq.) willd, VII. Casuarina equisetifolia L., VIII. Dalbergia melanoxylon L., IX. Delonix regia Guill. & Perr., X. Ficus bengalensis L., XI. Gliricidia sepium (Jacquin) Kunth ex Walp., XII. Mangifera indica L., XIII. Peltophorum ferrugineum Benth. XIV. Swietenia mahogany (L) Jaca. chun., and XV. Tamaridus indica L. (more popular trees in the park and roadside). Quantities analysis of species from the studied locations mainly dealt with the number of species and individuals, diversity and cluster analysis. The numerical data was used to establish distance matrix and analyzed using Bray Curtis Cluster (single link) analysis. A dendrogram was constructed using Biodiversity Professional program Version 2.0 software (http://www.sams.ac.uk, developed by Neil McAleece).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

In this study Poultry Training Center harbors the highest number of tree and fungal species. The highest number of infected tree species was found at Film institute-Pune and Poultry Training Center-Pune, On the contrary the least number of infected tree species was found at Mulshi (Table 1). Downgervadi showed 100% conk/basidiocarp development followed by Baneshwar with 93.75% (Table 1). Out of the infected trees, Mangifera indica was found to be most susceptible to the infection. Buhinia purpurea, Caesalpinia coriuria and Peltophorum ferrugineum showed to be the least infected trees (Table 3). Dalbergia melanoxylon harbors the highest number of root and heart fungi among the of the infected trees (Tables 4).

For healthy and infected trees the percentage was calculated with respect to total trees, whereas conk formations are the representation of infection and hence these percentages were with respect to infected trees.

As shown in table 2, the highest number tree species was found at Poultry training center-Pune, where as the least number was found at Mulshi. Mangifera indica was dominating amongst the studied plant species, while Caesalpinia coriuria showed to be the least number amongst the studied trees.

Table 4 shows that the highest number of infected tree species was found at Film institute-Pune and Poultry training center-Pune, On the contrary the least number of infected tree species was found at Mulshi. Mangifera indica was dominating amongst the studied plant species, while Caesalpinia coriuria and Peltophorum ferrugineum was the least infected tree.

As shown in table 5, the highest number of Conk development on the infected tree species was found at Film institute-Pune, where as the least number was found at Mulshi. Azadirachta indica showed to have the highest number of Conk, while Caesalpinia coriuria found to have the least number of Conks amongst the infected trees.

Phellinus fastuosus was the most dominant fungi in survey locations and tree species (Table 6 and 7).

Based on this category (Bray Curtis single link) a cluster analysis (Fig. 1) was carried out, which reveals that three clusters (Baneshwar –Downgervadi; Dapoli-Dabhol road – Karad and Film institute-Pune and Poultry training center-Pune) are formed independently of which cluster 1 and 2 shows 63.17% similarity with cluster 3. This entire unit is 55% similar with Pirangut while Mulshi is separated from all other clusters (25.98% similarity).

REFERENCES

• Bakshi, B. K. 1971. Indian Polyporaceae (on trees and timber). Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. 246 pp.
• Bhosle, S. R. and J. G. Vaidya. 2006. Taxonomy of Ganoderma. An Indian prespective. Proceeding of the National seminar on Fungal Biodivrsity, Biotechnology & Bioinformatics and 32nd Annual Meeting of The Mycological Society of India. Bhagawan Mahaveer Jain College, Jayanagar, Bangalore, India. P.16.
• Bolland, L. 1984. Phllinus noxius: cause of significant root rot in Queensland hoop pine plantations. Australian forestry 47: 2-10.
• Greenwood, J. J. D. 1996. Basic techniques. In: W. J. Sutherland (ed.). Ecological census techniques: A hand book. Pp. 11-110. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.
• Ivory, M. H. 1990. Brown root rot of tropical forest trees in South-West Pacific region. In: C. Hutacharern, K. G. MacDicken, M. H. Ivory, and K. S. S. Nair (eds.). Proceedings of the IUFRO Workshop on Pests and Diseases of Forest Plantations, pp. 100-106. Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, Bangkok, Thaland.
• Rabba, A. S. 1994. Studies in the genus Phellinus Quel from Maharashtra Ph.D. thesis, Department of Botany. University of Pune. Pp1-221.
• Ryvarden, L. 2000. Studies in neotropcal Polypores 2: a Preliminary key to neotropical species of Ganoderma with a laccate pileus. Mycologia 92: 180-191.
• Smith, B. J., and K. Sivasithamparam. 2001. Morphological studies of Ganoderma (Ganodermaceae) from the Australian and Pacific regions. Australian Systematic Botany 16: 487-503.
• Sutton, D. A., E. H. Thompson, M. G. Rinaldi, P. . Iwen, K. K. Nakasone, H. S. Jung, H. M. Rosenblatt and M. E. Paul. 2005. Identification and first report of Inonotus (Phellinus ) tropicalis as an etiologic agent in a patient with chronic Granulomatous disease. Journal of Clinical Microbiology 43: 981-987.
• Webb, E. L. and S. Fa, aumu. 1999. Diversity and structure of tropical rain forest of Tutuila, American Samoa: effects of site age and substrate. Plant Ecology 144: 257-274.

Copyright 2007 - Journal of Applied Sciences & Environmental Management

The following images related to this document are available:

Photo images