The history of studies on the ectomycorrhiza in the past century is briefly reviewed in this paper, with emphasis on investigations in ectomycorrhizal resources, identification and taxonomy, ecology, physiology, molecular biology, and biotechnology. (1) Ectomycorrhizal resource investigation. It is evident that numerous fungi and plants form a wide diversity of ectomycorrhizal association. Representatives of such diverse plant families are the Pinaceae, Cupressaceae, Salicaceae, Betulaceae and Fagaceae. C...