Introduction. Brazil is one of the most important producers of passion fruits. Inoculation witharbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) may reduce or eliminate the need for phosphate fertilization on this crop. Weinvestigated the response of passion fruit seedlings to inoculation with AMF and phosphorus (P) supply. Materialsand methods. A greenhouse experiment was carried out in a factorial design. The seedlings were inoculated with100 spores per plant of single or mixed AMF inoculum on sterilized or non-sterilized soil which was amended with (11 or 30) mgP × dm-3 soil applied as superphosphate or used unfertilized (4 mgP × dm-3 soil). Relative mycorrhizal dependency (RMD) of passion fruit was estimated for eachtreatment of inoculation, soil sterilization, and P level, by expressing the difference between the dry mass ofmycorrhizal plants and non-mycorrhizal plants as a percentage of the dry mass of mycorrhizal plants. Results.Inoculation was effective only on plants grown in sterilized soil with (4 or 11) mgP × dm-3 soil. Plants were "facultatively mycotrophic" when associated with AMF and when receiving a supply of 30 mgP × dm-3 soil. Seedlings in unfertilized soil with 4 mgP × dm-3 soil wereexcessively dependent on the mycorrhizal association. In soil with 11 mgP × dm-3 soil, seedlingswere marginally to moderately dependent, depending upon the AMF species used. All inoculated seedlings, withoutconsidering soil sterilization, were marginally dependent in soil with 30 mgP × dm-3 soil. Insterilized soil, independently of P, they were moderately dependent. However, in the same soil, with 30 mgP × dm-3 soil, the seedlings were marginally dependent. Discussion - conclusion. The relativemycorrhizal dependency (RMD) of the passion fruit cultivar used was influenced by the species of the inoculated AMF,soil sterilization and soil P level. Passion fruit obtained significant benefit from inoculation with AMF; thus, thesefungi can be used to improve plant growth even without P fertilization.