The Four-Day National Workshop on the Polyphasic Identification of Macrofungi culminated at the Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu. The national event of on-field-cum-laboratory training was organized under the project sanctioned by the National Mission for Himalayan Studies (NMHS), GB Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment, Almora (MoEF & CC, Govt. of India).

Speaking during the valedictory function of the workshop, the Chief Guest, Prof Seema Langer, Dean, Life Sciences congratulated the Department of Botany for the timely conduct of this important event for young and enthusiastic researchers working in the field of wild mushrooms. Sharing her concern about the dwindling interest in field-oriented academics and research, Prof Langer said that such field-based trainings keep you abreast with the ever-changing domains of mycology and to understand the intricacies of these fungal organisms and their relationships with other natural systems. “The basic characterization of wild macrofungi and other biotic communities is an ardent need of the present time for their conservation and bioprospection”, she opined and hoped that the knowledge gained and the skill acquired through this workshop would be disseminated further across the researchers and institution. Later, she honoured the Resource persons and distributed certificates to the participants of the workshop. Feedback on the outcomes of the workshop from the participants was another highlight of the valedictory proceedings.

Prof Yash Pal Sharma, PI, NMHS project while expressing his satisfaction with the fruitful culmination of the workshop, informed that the focus of the workshop was on-field exploration, collection, microscopic work, and molecular phylogeny for certainty in identification. Field botany, in general, and mycology, in particular, is a fun-filled foray for wild mushrooms, exploring areas for their distribution, and, most importantly, finding new locations and even novel macrofungal species in the region., said the mycologist from Jammu. Prof. Sharma expressed his sincere gratitude to the Resource Persons Dr. Dyutiparna Chakaraborty, Dr. Aniket Ghosh and Dr. Manoj Emanuel Hembrom from Botanical Survey of India, Kolkata, and Dr. Tahir Mehmood and Dr. Sanjeev Kumar from the Department of Botany for making participants learn the protocols for the wild mushroom collection, their preservation, drying, the molecular data analysis, and post-sequencing strategies. Research participants from Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala, University of Delhi, University of Kashmir, SKUAST-Jammu, Govt. Degree College, Kishtwar, and the University of Jammu got training during the workshop.

Earlier, Prof Veenu Kaul, Head, Department of Botany, University of Jammu, Jammu while extending a formal welcome to the Chief Guest, thanked Resource persons for making it to Jammu and helping to impart skill and training to the participants and hoped that they would make the best use of the acquired skills as well as cherished memories of this four-day workshop.

Others who attended the workshop include Prof Namrata Sharma, Prof Susheel Verma, Dr. Sikander Pal, Dr. Harish, Dr. Skarma, Dr. Madhu Raina, Dr. Sajan Thakur, and Research scholars of the Department of Botany.

The proceedings of the valedictory session were conducted by Ms. Shweta Rajput