A new arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, Acaulospora flava, was found in coffee (Coffea arabica) and inka nut (Plukenetia volubilis) plantations in the Amazonia region of San Martín State in Peru. The fungus was propagated in bait cultures on Sorghum vulgare, Brachiaria brizantha and Medicago sativa as host plants. It differentiates typical acaulosporoid spores laterally on sporiferous saccule necks. The spores are light yellow, bright yellow to yellow brown, (95-)105-160 × (95-)100-150 μm in diameter and have smooth spore surfaces. Phylogenetically, A. flava clusters in a well-separated clade, nearest to A. kentinensis, followed by A. herrerae, A. spinosissima, A. excavata and A. aspera, of which remarkably A. spinosissima, A. excavata and A. aspera had also been found in inka nut plantations of San Martín State during the last years. Here, we report also A. herrerae and A. fragilissima...

A new arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus, Paraglomus occidentale, was found in an agricultural plantation of the inka nut (Plukenetia volubilis) in the Amazonia region of San Martín State in Peru. The inka nut was grown in mixed cultures together with Zea mays and Phaseolus vulgaris. The fungus was propagated in bait and single species cultures on Sorghum vulgare, Brachiaria brizantha, Medicago sativa and P. volubilis as host plants. The fungus differentiates hyaline spores terminally on cylindrical to slightly funnel-shaped hyphae, singly in soils or rarely in roots. The hyaline spores have a triple layered outer wall and a bi- to triple-layered inner wall. They are (59)69–84(92) µm in diameter. The new fungus is distinguished from all other known Paraglomus spp. by spore wall structure including staining characteristics in Melzer’s reagent, which is yellow-grayish to grayish on the ou...