INVITRO INTERACTIONS BETWEEN ARMILLARIA-LUTEOBUBALINA AND OTHER WOOD DECAY FUNGI

One hundred and twenty-eight isolates of wood decay fungi were screened for their combative ability against Armillaria luteobubalina on 3% malt extract agar, as a means of selecting fungi to use in field tests to biologically control A. luteobubalina.Twenty-one of these w tested against A. luteobubalina on karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor) stem-wood sections. Some of the test isolates were highly combative against A. luteobubalina on agar, either quickly growing over the A. luteobubalina inoculum plug and p mycelial growth of A. luteobubalina, or at least substantially limiting the growth of A. luteobubalina. Other interaction phenomena included deadlock (where neither the test fungus nor A. luteobubalina was able to grow past the other) formation of coloured zones in the agar medium at the zone of interaction (notably a blue pigment between some Phellinus spp. and A. luteobubalina), and the development of dense and/or coloured zones of mycelia of the test fungi following contact with A. luteobubalina. There was a close relationship between the relative combative ability of test isolates towards A. luteobubalina on agar and on karri stem-wood sections. Coriolus versicolor consistently and largely replaced A. luteobubalina in stem-wood sections. © 1990, British Mycological Society. All rights reserved.