Screening , Isolation and Identification of some Wood Inhabiting Fungi on Five Different Forest Trees

Abstract

The objective of this study to investigate wood decay ability and determination rate of decay in five different types of forest trees ; P. halepensis , C. sempervirens , P.atlantica, C. siliqua and E. macroryncha against four types of basidiomycetes fungus; S. hirsutum , I. hispidus , H . fasciculare and A. polytricha . The assessment of mass loss conducted according to the ASTM D 143-94. In this study the experiment were conducted based on five steps; cutting wood samples for fungal testing , preparation of media for culture , drying the specimens , distribution of test specimens and exposure to fungi and examination of the samples exposed to fungi . The mass loss of wood blocks was analyzed after five periods 2 ,3, 4, 5 and 6 months respectively. Whereas, all the fungus that were tested completely invaded woodblocks within two weeks . Our results showed variability in the wood degrading abilities . Interestingly, the natural resistance of the heartwood of C. sempervirens was highly resistant to all fungus that were tested. Whereas, the results of C. siliqua showed very low resistance to fungus degradation. Whoever, the most active and effective fungus among the tested species for C. siliqua was H . fasciculare which showed 31.94% loss . On the other hand, A. polytricha showed lowest activity on blocks degradation, which ranged between (5.528 to 16.91). The results of the present study reveal that there were differences in the wood decay capability of blocks according to the type of fungus were used .