Journal of Applied and Natural Science 11(2): 511 - 515 (2019) ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) journals.ansfoundation.org Lichen diversity of Padder Valley Kishtwar (J&K), India Sachin Sharma Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Jammu, Jammu-180006 (J&K), India Anil K. Raina* Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Jammu, Jammu-180006 (J&K), India D. K. Upreti Lichenology Laboratory, Biodiversity and Conservation Division, NBRI (CSIR), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), India *Corresponding author. E-mail: anilkraina@yahoo.com Abstract Lichens are one of the most successful group of organisms and form an important as- pect of biodiversity of any region. But still lichens are under explored in most of regions. The present work has been carried out in Padder Valley, Kishtwar, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). A thorough survey of the lichen diversity from all the possible habitats was con- ducted in the study area which indicated the presence of 110 species belonging to 54 genera and 23 families. Parmiliaceae has been recorded as the largest family (16 gene- ra, 27 species) and is followed by Physciaceae (8 genera, 14 species). Four families have been observed to be monotypic. Lecanora has been recorded as dominant genera with 7 species followed by Peltigera with 5 species. Corticolous was most preferred substratum exhibited by 61 species while foliose was the most dominant type of growth form represented by 52 species. The study has added 94 lichen taxa as new records for district Kishtwar and is first of its kind in Padder Valley, J&K. Keywords: Corticolous, Foliose, Kishtwar, Lichen diversity, Padder valley, Parmili- aceae Article Info DOI: 10.31018/jans.v11i2.2119 Received: May 1, 2019 Revised: June 3, 2019 Accepted: June 8, 2019 How to Cite Sharma S. et al. (2019). Lichen diversity of Padder Valley Kishtwar (J&K), India. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 11 (2): 511 - 515 https:// doi.org/10.31018/ jans.v11i2.2119 INRODUCTION Lichens, a unique symbiotic association between the algae and fungus (and yeast, Spribille, et al., 2016), are cosmopolitan in their distribution and grow on variety of different substratum which in- cludes trees, rocks, soil and various man-made structures. The growth of lichens on different sub- strata depend upon the various factors like region- al climatic factors (average rainfall and average temperature), microclimatic factors (light availabil- ity, moisture, temperature, etc) and substrate characteristics like rock composition, bark type, pH, rough surface and moisture retention ability (Hawksworth and Rose,1976; James et al.,1977; Hawksworth and Hill, 1984; Wolseley and Aguirre -Hudson,1997; Mulligan, 2009). Singh and Sinha (2010) have reported the pres- ence of 2532 lichen species belonging to 324 gen- era and 78 families in India. However in a mega- biodiversity nation like India with varied climatic and topographic features, the reported number of lichen species is not sufficient and hence requires rigorous exploration of newer areas. In the state of Jammu and Kashmir a total of 356 species of li- chens belonging to 35 families and 91 genera have been recorded by different workers (Sheikh et al., 2006, Kumar et al., 2012, Kumar et al., 2014, Rahim et al., 2014, Goni et al., 2015) from few area only and still a vast expense of the state requires a thorough exploration. Padder valley (33⁰10' to 33⁰40' N and 76⁰10' to 76⁰50' ⁰E) with an altitudinal extent ranging from 1500 m to 3500 m above sea level is such a place where no lichen studies have been carried out before this work. It lies at the confluence of Greater Himalaya and Pir -Panjal ranges in the Kishtwar district of the state, thereby creating unique microclimatic conditions. The rich growth of tree species like Quercus leu- cotrichophora, Q. semicarpifolia, Pinus wallichia- na, Cedrus deodara, Abies pindrow, Picea smithi- ana, Juglans regia, Betula utilis etc. provide a suit- able substratum for the growth of corticolous li- chens. The outcrops of rocks of different types present in the study area also provide rich sub- stratum for saxicolous lichens. The current work has been carried out with the objective to explore the lichen diversity of this unique habitat which has remained virgin as far as lichen studies are concerned and to collect baseline data for lichen diversity. This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © 2018: Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF.