Advances in Zoology and Botany 8(1): 29-36, 2020 http://www.hrpub.org DOI: 10.13189/azb.2020.080105 Additions to the List of Polypores to India Brij Bala, Avneet Pal Singh * , Gurpaul Singh Dhingra Department of Botany, Punjabi University, India Received October 31, 2019; Revised December 11, 2019; Accepted December 17, 2019 Copyright©2020 by authors, all rights reserved. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 International License Abstract Five species of the pileate polypore fungi, Ganoderma ungulatum (Polyporales, Ganodermataceae), Gloeophyllum odoratum (Gloeophyllales, Gloeophyllaceae) Heterobasidion abietinum (Russulales, Bondarzewiaceae), Osmoporus mexicanus (Gloeophyllales, Gloeophyllaceae) and Oxyporus ravidus (Hymenochaetales, Schizoporaceae) are described and illustrated on the basis of basidiocarps collected during the rainy season of years 2015-2017 from different parts of Doda district (Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India). Of these, the first four species are being described and illustrated for the first time from India, whereas Oxyporus ravidus is a new record for Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Being the key wood decayers, these fungi grow in association with both broad-leaved as well as conifer tree species. Of the species described, the basidiocarps of Ganoderma ungulatum were collected from Quercus sp., whereas rest of the four species were growing in association with gymnospermous wood. Among the five species described presently, Heterobasidion abietinum is a host specific polypore that grows only in association with wood of Abies spp. These polypores are responsible for different types of rot and play a significant role in the recycling of different types of material. Of the described species, Ganoderma ungulatum Heterobasidion abietinum and Oxyporus ravidus are reported to cause white rot whereas Gloeophyllum odoratum and Osmoporus mexicanus are responsible for brown rot. Keywords Basidiomycota, Poroid Fungi, White Rot, Brown Rot, North Western Himalaya 1. Introduction Polypores (Agaricomycetes, Basidiomycota) are characteristic in having annual to perennial, resupinate to effused-reflexed to pileate, sessile to stipitate basidiocarps. These fungi have unilateral hymenium organized inside tubes which open through pores that can be circular, angular, daedaleoid, lamellate or irregular. In case of pileate members the pilear surface can be smooth, tuberculate, warted, scrupose, tomentose, velutinate, hirsute, hispid, etc. The colour of hymenial and abhymenial surfaces varies from whitish to some shades of yellow, orange, grey, violet, blue or red. These fungi play significant role in the forest ecosystem because of their ability to secrete lignin and cellulose degrading enzymes. Besides their role in recycling of carbon, some of these fungi have also been used in the traditional medicinal system [1]. Jammu division of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the area under investigation of the present studies, offers a wide range of variation in altitude and climate. The division has about 45.89 % of its geographical area under forest cover. The vegetation can be broadly categorized into subtropical dry evergreen forests (dominated by Acacia catechu, Dalbergia sissoo, Eucalyptus sp., Dendrocalamus strictus etc.), sub-tropical pine forests (mainly Pinus roxburghii), Himalayan dry temperate forests (Abies pindrow, Acer sp. Aesculus indicus, Cedrus deodara, Juglans regia, etc.), Himalayan moist temperate forests (Abies pindrow, Cedrus deodara, Pinus wallichiana, Picea smithiana etc.), subalpine forests (Abies pindrow, Populus ciliata, Betula utilis, Rhododendron spp., Quercus spp. etc.) and alpine vegetation (Berberis spp., Geranium, Lonicera, etc.). The variation in altitude, vegetation and climate offer ideal set of conditions for the growth of polypore fungi. The previous workers reported 40 species of the polypore fungi [2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] from Jammu and Kashmir. Keeping in view the variation in geography and climate; diversity of the tree species and few polypore species reported, the present studies were proposed and the localities of Jammu division were surveyed for the collection of polypore basidiocarps. Presently five polypore species i.e. Ganoderma ungulatum J.D. Zhao & X.Q. Zhang, Gloeophyllum odoratum (Wulfen) Imazeki, Heterobasidion abietinum Niemelä & Korhonen, Osmoporus mexicanum (Mont.) Y.C. Dai & S.H. He, are