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The Kashmir region in India harbours rich macrofungal diversity, however meager work has been carried out to explore the diversity of Ascomycetous mushrooms till date.This study aimed to explore the diversity of Ascomycetous mushrooms from north Kashmir using modern phylogenetic tools supported by classical phenetic approaches, and producing a checklist along with their collection sites, valid photographs, edibility status and key taxonomic characteristics.Periodical field surveys and collections were carried out in sixteen ( 16) sampling sites belonging to district Kupwara, Baramulla and Bandipora of north Kashmir during 2018-2021.A total of twenty-four (24) wild Ascomycetous mushrooms were documented from the study area belonging to two (02) orders, seven (07) families and ten (10) genera.The family Morchellaceae was dominant with nine (09) species followed by Helvellaceae (5 spp.), Discinaceae (4 spp.), Pyronemataceae and Pezizaceae (2 spp.each), Sarcoscyphaceae and Xylariaceae (1 sp.each).Majority of the Ascomycetous mushrooms documented in this paper were collected from the areas of district Kupwara.The present study also revealed four species viz.Morchella vulgaris, M. quercus, M. kaibabensis and Verpa conica to be new records and new additions to the mycoflora of Kashmir as well as Indian mushroom flora.Various attributes provided in this checklist widen the understanding on genetic diversity, distribution, edibility status, and vernacular names of wild Ascomycetous mushrooms from north Kashmir and will be used as a reference database to help in future research work in different fields.
Talie et al. (Fri,) studied this question.