Abstract: Forty-five fungal strains were isolated from turf thatch of Zoysia matrella , soil and rotten wood , and six among them were selected out for decomposing the thatch of Zoysia matrella efficiently by preliminary screening with Congo-red-clear-zone method and rescreening with the assay of cellulase activities. Results showed that all of them had no pathogenicity to live turfgrass of Zoysia matrella , and the HU43 strain identified as Aspergillus awamori expressed the highest growth rate , as well as the greatest efficiency to decompose sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. The cellulase activity of HU43 reached 35.7 U·g ^-1 after 3 days by solid state fermentation. After being incubated at 25 ℃under high moist condition for 7 days , 24.34 % of withered grass of Zoysia matrella had been decomposed by this strain.

Key words: Zoysia matrella, Fungal strain, Screening, Cellulase, Decompose, Turf thatch