High altitude morels from Ladakh Trans-Himalaya (J&K), India

Abstract

Present study emphasizes on the documentation of some hitherto interesting morels from Ladakh, the cold desert of Indian Trans-Himalaya. Seven taxa of morels namely Morchella conica, M. crassipes, M. deliciosa, M. elata, M. elata var. himalayansis var. nov., M. esculenta, M. tomentosa have been documented. All the species have been recorded for the first time from Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir, while as M. elata var. himalayansis var. nov., the proposed as new variety, constitutes new addition to morels of India. Detailed description and illustration with micro- and macroscopic characteristics have been provided for M. elata var. himalayansis var. nov., while as remaining six species have been described with field photographs.