It is an endophytic root-colonising species, discovered from orchid plants in the Thar desert in Rajasthan, India by Prof. Ajit Verma and group, School of Life Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

[1] Experiments have shown that S. indica increases the resistance of colonized plants against fungal pathogens.

[2] It has also been found in experiments with barley that S. indica-inoculated plants are tolerant to salt stress and more resistant to root pathogens.

The fungus also induces systemic disease resistance in plants.

[3] S. indica was found to require host cell death for proliferation during mutualistic symbiosis in barley.