Abstract:

The paper documents the knowledge about the wild edible fungal flora of Kohima district of Nagaland, India used by the indigenous tribes through structured questionnaires in consultations. The study revealed that more than 12 ethnic groups of Nagaland were found to be mycophilic and to have extensive traditional mycological knowledge. A total of 13 species of fleshy fungi under 9 genera and 6 families were identified. Further, mushroom selling was observed in Kohima town of Nagaland where women represented 83% of sellers, while indigenous people comprised 67.28%. The sale of some wild edible mushrooms, the large amounts of commercialization, the complicated intermediary process, as well as the insertion of mushrooms into different informal economic practices were all evidence of an existent mycophily in a sector of the population of this region.