A Study on the Effects of Mycorrhizae on Desmanthus illinoensis and Monarda fistulosa Plant Growth

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to test whether wild mycorrhizae or commercial mycorrhizae would better benefit the plant growth of Desmanthus illinoensis and Monarda fistulosa. We anticipated that the commercial mycorrhizae would increase stem height, number of leaves, and the total biomass of both species. We came to this hypothesis due to the fact that commercial mycorrhizae is specifically engineered to increase overall plant growth based on research that proves the symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizae and plants where both species benefit from the relationship. This particular experiment is both imperative and relevant to the plant biology department because there is very little research comparing the two types of mycorrhizae. To test our hypothesis, we planted 48 total plants in four treatments: live inoculated, live non-inoculated, sterile inoculated, and sterile non-inoculated. A ruler was used to measure stem height in centimeters. At the end of the four weeks, we separated the plants from the soil and dried the roots and plant bodies for biomass measurements. Once completely dried, the biomass was measured using a scale. Our main result ended in our hypothesis being rejected due to a lack of statistically significant values for the differences in the wild vs. commercial mycorrhizae. In the end, it seemed that using mycorrhizae for the purpose of plant growth is still beneficial, but there is not a better type of mycorrhizae to use in this situation.