THE STATUS OF VESICULAR ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATIONSWITH MEDICINAL PLANTS IN MIHINTALE SANCTUARY

Sri Lanka has an enormous diversity of medicinal plants, and most are in dry zone forests. Mihintale sanctuary has some of the widely used medicinal plants in our ayurvedic system. Vesicular Arbuscularmycorrhiza (VAM) is the most abundant form of mycorrhiza and, plays a very important role in enhancing plant growth by increased nutrient uptake. This study investigates the presence of VAM colonization in several selected medicinal plants in disturbed and undisturbed sties in the Mihintale sanctuary. The results may be used to conserve those medicinal plants from destruction due to over exploitation. Root Samples were taken randomly from fourteen plant species in both disturbed and undisturbed sites in order to determine the effect of soil disturbance due to human activities on VAM colonization. Sub samples of fine roots of each species were quantified for VAM colonization by performing standard procedures. All the species had VAM colonization but was relatively higher with the plants in undisturbed site than in disturbed site. . Results indicate that the soil disturbances cause a decrease in VAM colonization in the study species.