Not spores!

The soil is one of the largest reservoirs of biodiversity on the planet. Therefore, it is no surprise to find structures formed by different taxa when extracting spores of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) from the soil. Some of these structures are very similar to spores, both in shape, size, and color, and many end up being collected, mounted on slides, and treated as spores. Over the past two decades, while assisting professionals and students in identifying AMF on slides, we have encountered many structures that were initially mistaken for AMF spores. This page presents some of these structures with their names to help professionals and students recognize what is not AMF spores. Updated August 27, 2024