Further Investigations of the Mycoflora in the Soil of some Mangrove Swamps

An attempt has been made to answer several questions raised in a previous publication on the same subject (Swart, 1958). A new sampling area had to be selected but this made no difference to the distribution of fungi over the major soil types. Sea water appears to inhibit the growth of a species of Absidia but is not the only factor causing its extremely poor growth in mangrove mud. Salinity optima may have something to do with the distribution of fungi in the area under investigation but do not seem to be a major factor. The distribution of different strains of the genus Fusarium has been investigated but the results are difficult to interpret. The salinity optima, as measured for some of these isolates, seem to play no role at all in their distribution. Isolation of fungi at 35° C as against 25° C yielded some more Aspergillus cultures but greatly reduced the numbers of all other fungi found.