Abstract: As classic materials for the study of a number of significant biological issues and as p romising
potential ornamental plants, species of Pedicularis L. have become a great concern to biologists and horticul
turists. However, cultivation of the genus has long been unsuccessful, which hinders their exp loitation to a
large extent. The majority of botanists tend to ascribe the difficulties encountered in cultivation to their hemip
arasitism and cultivation experiments have been partially focused on the search of p roper host p lants. Previous
reports indicated that the establishment of Pedicularis seedlingswas very poor even in the p resence of their host
plants. It is speculated that there may be other important factors inhibiting the cultivation of the genus. Based
on literatures and our investigations, the important roles ofmycorrhizal fungi and other ecological factors in the
cultivation p rocess of Pedicularis species are pointed out in the present paper. And multifactor analysis of spe
cific species is suggested by getting rid of traditional single host-plant factor investigation.

Key words: Orobanchaceae, Hemiparasitic plant, Host plant, Mycorrhizal fungi