WEALTH AND DIVERSITY OF MYCOFLORA IN SALT PAN SOIL OF THE EAST COAST OF TAMIL NADU, INDIA

The mycoflora of the salt pan soil was investigated from four seasons of East Coast of Tamilnadu. Physico – chemical characters of the soil were also analyzed to find out their impact on fungal population. The fungi were identified and assigned to thirty eight fungal species belonged to 18 genera were isolated. The genus Aspergillus was constituted by the maximum of 11 species followed by Penicillium (6 species), Trichoderma, Geotrichum and Circinella (2 species each), and all other genera were represented by one species each namely Botryotrichum, Fusarium, Gliocladiopsis, Humicola, Marinosphaera, Rhizopus, Scopulariopsis, Sporotrichum, Torula, Trichocladium and Tubercularia. Most of the genera detected belonged to the form class Deuteromycetes. The physico-chemical parameters variable of the present study area was subjected to wide spatial temporal variation. The higher values of the parameters recorded during the monsoon month.