The phyllosphere is the living leaf as a whole and is colonized by endophytic and epiphytic fungi. In this paper I summarize ecological studies on endophytic and epiphytic phyllosphere fungi from live leaves of trees in Japan. Studies to date have detected endophytes and epiphytes on leaves of at least 182 tree species in 54 plant families according to 41 papers published since 1990. These studies have recorded 24 endophytic and 22 epiphytic genera of fungi. Major trees used in the ecological studies of phyllosphere fungi include pines, beech and dogwood. Topics include （i） the infection and colonization of leaves, （ii） seasonal and leaf age-dependent patterns of temporal changes, （iii） spatial distribution at various levels, and （iv） interaction with pathogens and herbivores and effects of simulated acid rain. Future research directions in Japan are suggested and discussed with reference to international literature on the ecology of phyllosphere fungi.

Orchids are strongly mycorrhizal and completely depend on symbiotic fungi for the nutrients including carbohydrates during seed germination and subsequent development. Some orchids are achlorophyllous and dependent on fungi throughout their lives. Such a life type is called myco-heterotrophy. Most mycobionts had long been considered to belong to the form-genus Rhizoctonia. However, recent molecular studies have revealed that many other fungi are also involved, and some of them form ectomycorrhizae when associated with trees. The specificity of symbioses is high in many orchids. Most mycobionts belong to basidiomycota, but some ectomycorrhizal fungi belong to ascomycota. In the tripartite symbiosis of trees, orchids and their common mycorrhizal fungi, the carbohydrates appear to be supplied from the trees to the orchids through the fungi. Many orchids are endangered by environmental changes and excessive collection, so proper understanding of their lives supported by symbiosis is important for conservation.

Inocybe dunensis P. D. Orton and Inocybe leptoclada Takah. Kobay. & Courtec. collected from Wakayama Prefecture, Western Japan by Kumagusu Minakata are described and illustrated. Inocybe dunensis is newly recorded in Japan. Inocybe leptoclada is newly recorded in western Japan.

Close investigations on a specimen of a Cordyceps species on a coleopteran larva were carried out. Morphological characteristics of the specimen were identical with Cordyceps brongniartii, and the anamorph derived from conidia and ascospores of the specimen was Beauveria brongniartii. Therefore, the specimen was determined to be C. brongniartii, and we propose “mayasan-etsukimushitake" as the Japanese name for C. brongniartii.

We report here an unrecorded entomoparasitic fungus Paecilomyces species from an imago of Dorcus montivagus (Coleoptera: Lucanidae) in an insect breeding room. Synnemata and conidia formed out of the host stag beetle. Cultural characters of an isolate of this fungus was also investigated. Mycelia and synnemata on media (and insect) were white or light yellow, and sometimes produced synnemata up to 2.5 cm. Conidia were lemoniform or oval to short cylindricals arranged in a basiptical chain. Paecilomyces species that infect the imago of stag beetles is a new record.

The characteristics of bamboo witches' broom symptoms caused by three species of fungi, Aciculosporium take, Heteroepichloë sasae and Ustilago shiraiana were illustrated. In addition, the characteristics of bamboo flowering and aging culms were explained because that look like witche's broom disease.