| Summary: | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), which form symbioses with most land plants, could benefit their hosts and potentially play important roles in revegetation of degraded lands. However, their application in revegetation of desert grasslands still faces challenges and uncertainties due to the unclear specificity of AMF-plant interactions. Here, <i>Caragana korshinskii</i> and <i>Caragana microphylla</i> were inoculated with either conspecific (home) or heterospecific (away) AM fungal communities from the rhizosphere of three common plant species (<i>C. korshinskii</i>, <i>C. microphylla</i> and <i>Hedysarum laeve</i>) in Kubuqi Desert, China. AMF communities of the inocula and their home and away effects on growth and nutrition status of two <i>Caragana</i> species were examined. Results showed that AMF communities of the three inocula from <i>C. korshinskii</i>, <i>H. laeve</i> and <i>C. microphylla</i> were significantly different, and were characterized by high abundance of <i>Diversispora</i>, <i>Archaeospora</i>, and <i>Glomus</i>, respectively. The shoot biomass, photosynthetic rate, foliar N and P contents of <i>C. korshinskii</i> only significantly increased under home AMF inoculation by 167.10%, 73.55%, 9.24%, and 23.87%, respectively. However, no significant effects of AMF on <i>C. microphylla</i> growth were found, regardless of home or away AMF. Positive correlations between <i>C. korshinskii</i> biomass and the abundance of AMF genus <i>Diversispora</i> were found. Our study showed strong home advantage of using native AMF community to enhance <i>C. korshinskii</i> growth in the desert and presented a potentially efficient way to use native AMF in restoration practices.
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