KEYWORDS Forest soils, soil Fungi, seasonal distributionSoil is a rich habitat for the growth of microorganisms than other microbial habitats. Among these microorganisms, fungi are one of the dominant groups present in soil. Fungi live, multiply and die or disintegrate in the soil and thus they provide rich organic matter, which could be recycled as plant nutrition. Thus developed humus complex is a natural fertilizer mixed with soil and plays a very important role in the composition of soil.An exhaustive work has been done on the taxonomy of forest soil fungi in India. Saksena (1955), Bakshi and Singh (1956), Saksena and Sarbhoy (1964), Shrivastava and Bhargava (1966), Deshpande and Deshpande (1966), Gangawane and Deshpande (1972), Kamal and Bhargava (1972, 1973), Manoharachary (1977), Madhusudan Rao and Manoharachary (1981, Manoharachary et al. (1989, 1990), Venugopal Rao et al. (1984, Reddy et al. (1987), Mohanty and Panda (1994) etc. have studied the soil fungi of different forests. Very little information is available regarding biodiversity and taxoecology of soil fungi of Jalgaon District. Hence the present investigation was undertaken for three years, 2001, 2002 and 2003 STUDY AREAPal Forest: It is located in Raver Taluka and 95km away from Jalgaon city. The soil is pinkish-white in colour. It harbours deciduous type of forest, situated on the tableland in the hills of Satpuda dominated by plant Hardwickia pinnata Roxb.Manudevi Forest: It is located in Yawal Taluka and 45km away from Jalgaon city. The soil is pink in colour. The locality has special importance because of a sacred place with a temple of "Manubai Devi" situated in this forest. This is also a part of Satpura hills where the forest is dominated by Tectona grandis L. METHODOLOGYPhysical analysis of the soil like colour, texture, pH, salinity, maximum water holding capacity were studied. Chemical analysis included organic carbon, available nitrogen, available phosphorus, available potassium etc.Soil samples were collected from both the forests, at the depth of 6in during all the three seasons -winter, summer and rainy season for the three years. These soil samples were collected in sterile bottles and were inoculated within 24 hours on nutrient media (Czapek Dox Agar and Lactose Yeast Extract Agar) by Dilution Plate Method (Waksman, 1916) and brought to pure culture for further studies.The semipermanant slides were prepared for identification, which was done using relevant literature. Camera lucida drawings and photographs were taken.

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The study focuses on tree diversity in the Pune Corporation Area (PCA) and nearby hills during 1999 and 2000. A total of 380 tree species were recorded, with two-thirds being cultivated exotics and one-third native. Although there were some losses of certain species due to human influences like cutting and fires, the overall floristic richness in the area remained relatively stable. Popular plantation trees are mostly exotic species, leading to a decline in local fruit tree populations over the last few decades. The study suggests the need for quantifying tree census data to make informed recommendations for conservation and management.