Endophytic fungi and peonies

Diversity of endophytic fungi of Paeonia lactiflora Pallas and screening for fungal paeoniflorin producers. by Xiaozhong Cheng, Zhiwen Wei, Shunchang Pu, Min Xiang, Aolei Yan, You Zhang and Xiaomei Wang. FEMS Microbiology Letters https://doi.org/10.1093/femsle/fny263

This article has nothing to do with cut flower peonies but everything to do with the medicinal aspect of peonies but with an interesting twist. . Endophytic fungi are ones that live symbiotically within the tissues of the host plant, and in most instances, cause no harm. In many plants, they have been shown to improve crop yields, and there is a lot of research to develop fungal inoculants that can be applied to the plant or seeds to promote growth. Paeoniflorin is one of the most important medicinal ingredients in peony roots, seeds, leaves and stems that has been used for hundreds of years in traditional Chinese herbal medicine

In this study, the researchers were not so much interested in peony plant growth as they were in studying the fungi that inhabit peony plants. They found 16 different taxa inhabiting the roots, leaves and stems including Alternaria, Aspergillis and Penicillium species. All of these fungi were found to produce paeoniflorin, and one species, Aspergillis flavus, produced sufficient quantities that led the authors to conclude this fungus could be isolated and “farmed” – grown in cultures – specifically for the purpose of producing paeoniflorin for medicine.

For cut flower growers, it is interesting to learn of these fungal associates of the peony plant. One wonders which, if any, could be used as an inoculant to enhance growth or suppress diseases in our peonies. Just a thought!