The purpose of the present work was to investigate and identify endophytic fungi in seeds of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) cultivars, IPA-201, IPA-202, IPA-204, IPA-205, and IPA-206 from Caruaru and Serra Talhada counties, and evaluate the influence of those microorganisms on germination. Four hundred seeds of each cultivar were analyzed by blotter test method, which revealed the presence of 71 fungus species involving 23 genera. The most prevalent genera were Aspergillus, Penicillium and Fusarium, corresponding to 81.44% of all the colonies found. The highest contamination index was observed in the seeds from Serra Talhada, which shows an association between higher numbers of fungal colonies with longer storage time. The influence of microorganisms on germination was observed mainly in IPA-201 and IPA-202 cultivars from Serra Talhada, with a percentage corresponding to 53.25% and 65.50%, respectively. The presence of fungi was observed in the seeds, causing necrosis in cotyledon, root and primitive leaf and generating abnormal seedlings. In the IPA-206 cultivar higher performance was shown in both seed health and viability.
