The influence of lead on the system ectomycorrhiza-plant was investigated by laboratory experiments and by field examinations at a shooting-range. The results of three aspects of these investigations are presented.
• In a hydroculture experiment non-mycorrhizal and mycorrhizal (Hebeloma crustuliniforme) spruce seedlings were grown in solutions containing different concentrations of lead to examine the influence of a mycorrhization on the uptake of lead through the plant and on the effect of lead on plant growth. The mycorrhizal fungus could not protect the plant from the uptake and the negative effect of lead on plant growth.
• The location of lead in mycorrhizal roots was detected by using a histochemical method. The place of lead-accumulation was different depending on the fungus-plant-combination. There was hardly no translocation of lead within the plants.
• The contents of lead in roots as weil as in sporocarps collected near the shooting-range are considerably high. In edible fungi the contents exceed in part drastically the maximum value for food, which is 10 ppm Pb (LINDT et al., 1990).