Trying to settle a little disagreement between me and my mum!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Hey, Camille.

I gain access to only a few of the articles in the scientific journals.

There are many where I only get to read the abstracts.

A few I was able to find for free. Those I've learned that I should download right away! There's a lot of searching involved. Sometimes the same article will be posted on two or more different sites. At least one of those sites I can obtain the entire pdf file for free. Otherwise, I'd have to pay for them.

The orchid mycorrhizae, genus Thanetophorous, is a large player in the symbiosis of orchids as well. But from what I understand, they're mainly associated with terrestrial orchids, specifically Dactylorrhiza. I'd have to check again with the Thanetophorous and the Dactylorrhiza, I'm just doing this off memory.

[camille1585]

Well if there are ever any articles you really would like to read, just give a shout and I'll email them to you. It just takes a minute to download the PDF and stick it in an email, so I really don't mind (and I wouldn't be making the offer otherwise! ). I have access to mostly everything plant related.

[Royal]

If a capsule contained 10,000 seeds, 0.01% germination would equal one germinated seed. I guess that is technically viability, but I don't think those are the kind of results Ashleigh's mum was talking about. Even 1% success would yeild 100 seedlings, but that's still not even statistically significant.

[RosieC]

Wow, great information King & Camille. I love this scientific stuff.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Thanks Camille.

[stefpix]

yeah me too - knowledge and learning better than ignorance and hearsays. I was wondering if teh symbiotic relationship was very specific.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Like I said, it can be. But there are many non-specialists.

However, the fungi must be known "orchid mycorrhizae".

Taxonomy is kinda weird with these group of fungi. Not much focus was put into their classification or the taxonomic name may be kept a secret for whatever reasons.

Sometimes, they'll just be referred to by a letter and a number.

For example, there is a Dactylorrhiza mycorrhiza commonly referred to as "B1 fungus". That's it, nothing more.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I forgot to mention.

One particular species of orchid may contain as much as 10 or more species of orchid mycorrhizae. Some of which are major players, while a majority play a smaller role in the symbiosis.

Unfortunately there's still a lot of specifics not known to science. There's more specifics that need to be refined or discovered.