Effect of Commercial Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Growth, Survivability, and Subsequent Landscape Performance of Selected Container Grown Nursery Crops

This research evaluated the effects of commercially available arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) on growth of selected ornamental plant species grown under a nursery-container production system. Subsequent plant survivability and growth in the landscape was also evaluated for two seasons. Acacia greggii, Chilopsis linearis, Diospyros virginiana, Platanus occidentalis, Ipomoea carnea and Plumbago auriculata were inoculated with commercial AMF: EndoNet®, MycorisePro®, or non-inoculated (NonAMF). Platanus occidentalis had a fourth mycorrhizal treatment, which included BioterraPLUS®. EndoNet® and MycorisePro® enhanced growth of C. linearis, I. carnea and P. auriculata during nursery-container production. Growth enhancement of P. occidentalis was significant with BioterraPLUS®, EndoNet® and MycorisePro® compared to NonAMF. During the container phase, greatest colonization (total arbuscules, vesicles/endospores, and intraradical hyphae) occurred with I. carnea and P. auriculata inoculated with EndoNet® and MycorisePro®. After the 1st growing season following out planting, AMF inoculated P. occidentalis and C. linearis had greater growth and AMF inoculated P. auriculata had higher survival than NonAMF plants. However, by the end of the 2nd growing season there were no differences in survival or growth among AMF treatments. The similarity in plant growth during the 2nd season was due in part to a high and active indigenous AMF population in the landscape site that colonized the NonAMF plants after transplanting.

Shasta ground sloth food habits, Rampart Cave, Arizona

The feces of the Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastense), preserved by the arid climate of the lower Grand Canyon, were collected at various levels and examined by microhistological analyses to identify and quantify plant taxa in the diet. Over 500 pieces of different Shasta sloth coprolites were examined. Sloth dung from the nearby Muav Caves was examined and compared with that from Rampart Cave.Seventy-two genera of plants were identified in the sloth dung deposited discontinuously from over 40,000 to about 11,000 yr BP. The major plant taxa in the Rampart Cave sloth diets were desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua = 52%), Nevada mormontea (Ephedra nevadensis = 18%), saltbushes (Atriplex spp. = 7%), catclaw acacia (Acacia greggii = 6%), Cactaceae spp. (= 3%), common reed (Phragmites communis = 5%), and yucca (Yucca spp. = 2%).Six of the most abundant plants in sloth diets were collected in the environs of Rampart Cave and were analyzed for their energy, fiber and nutrient values. The simulated diets of Rampart Cave sloths averaged 1679 cal/g in digestible gross energy and 7.9% for digestible protein. Apart from a substantial increase in digestible energy and in mormontea there was no unusual change in the sloth diet immediately prior to the time of their extinction.The ecological role of Nothrotheriops shastense is less dramatically different from that of extant desert herbivores than was previously believed.

BRUCHIDAE ASSOCIATED WITH MIMOSA WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES

One new species, Acanthoscelides tridenticulatus, is described from Mimosa strigillosa Torr. and Gray in Texas, and from specimens collected in Louisiana and Texas.Erroneous records of Bruchidae having been reared from native Mimosa in the United States are corrected. These are: Merobruchus julianus (Horn) (Not synonym Bruchus ochreolineatus Fall) from Acacia greggii Gray, Not Mimosa fragrans; Acanthoscelides chiricahuae (Fall), Not Bruchus schrankiae Horn, from M. borealis Gray; and A. distinguendus (Horn) from Rhynchosia americana (Mill.) Metz, NOTM. strigillosa. All of these constitute new host records.The following new host records are reported: Acanthoscelides chiricahuae (Fall) from Mimosa biuncifera Benth. in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Coahuilla, Mexico; and from M. dysocarpa Benth. and M. grahamii Gray in Arizona, A. quadridentatus (Schaeffer) from M. pigra var. berlandieri (Gray) Turner and M. strigillosa in Texas, and from M. pigra var. pigra L. in Nicaragua and Panama. A. speciosus (Schaeffer) from M. malacophylla Gray in Texas, from M. biuncifera in Arizona, and from M. galeottii Benth. in Morelos, Mexico. Stator pruininus (Horn) from M. biuncifera in Texas and Mexico; and from M. dysocarpa in Arizona.