Diversity and plant growth-promoting ability of endophytic fungi from the five flower plant species collected from Yunnan,Southwest China

The diversity and plant growth-promoting ability of endophytic fungi associated with the five flower plant species growing in Yunnan, Southwest China, were investigated. A total of 357 culturable endophytic fungi were isolated from 1000 segments of healthy leaves and stems of the five plant species. Based on the morphological characteristics and the rDNA internal transcribed spacer (ITS) analysis, the isolates were identified to 24 taxa, of which Alternaria, Phomopsis, Cladosporium, and Colletotrichum were the dominant genera. The Sorenson's coefficient similarity indices of the endophytic fungi from the five flower plant species ranged from 0.36 to 0.80. It was found that the similarity index between two cultivated flowers (0.8) or the similarity index between two wild flowers (0.71–0.76) was higher than the similarity index between one cultivated flower and one wild flower (0.36–0.48). The Shannon indices (H) of the endophytic fungi from the five plant species ranged from 1.73 to 2.45, and the diversity indices of the wild flowers were higher than those of the cultivated flowers. The plant growth-promoting tests indicated that some isolates could improve the host plants' growth more efficiently when compared with the control (p < 0.05, least significant difference test).