Kingdom Fungi Class Glomeromycetes Family Glomeraceae Scientific name Glomus aggregatum | Division Glomeromycota Order Glomerales Genus Glomus Rank Species | |
Similar Glomus, Rhizophagus irregularis, Acaulospora, Scleroderma cepa, Acaulospora scrobiculata | ||
Glomus aggregatum is an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus used as a soil inoculant in agriculture and horticulture.
History
In 1939, Edwin John Butler described a Glomus aggregatum-like organism, but a name was not assigned to this species until 1943, when C.O. Rosendahl further elaborated the specifics on what he dubbed Rhizophagites butleri Rosendahl. Rosendahl wrote of his discovery of grouped (or clustered) sporangia on thick-walled, branched hyphae recovered from disturbed soils in Minnesota. Over the course of the next 40 years, various researchers were able to isolate similar fungal spores (typically in areas with sand based soils), but it wasn't until 1982 that G. aggregatum was first described. N.C. Schenck and George S. Smith were the researchers who made this discovery (in Florida Citrus groves) and their description was very similar to that of R. butleri and other fungi in the Glomus fasciculatum complex, however, it was still thought to be a different species than R. butleri. Further research was conducted, and after comparing extensive amounts of fungal spores, a conclusion was reached that G. aggregatum and R. butleri are in-fact the same species of fungi.