National Mushroom Centre (NMC-FUNGI)

The National Mushroom Center (NMC) has developed extensive experience in production and marketing of edible and medicinal mushrooms. The National Mushroom Centre (NMC) is based in Wanchutaba, Thimphu. The Centre staff report directly to the Horticulture Division of the Department of Agriculture.

One of the primary activities of the Centre is to develop the National Fungi Herbarium from collecting wild mushrooms, identifying the specimens and drying the fungi specimens for preservation in the herbarium. Currently, more than 2350 fungi specimens including poisonous, edible, and medicinal fungi have been collected. Specimen data is databased and specimens are digitally imaged with data published in a publicly available specimen data portal. The fungi collection is being expanded through additional field expeditions and collecting throughout Bhutan.

In 2017, the herbarium received assistance from Dr. Michael B. Thomas through a partnership with the US Fulbright program. This collaboration led to the databasing of the specimen collection and specimen data portal development. Dr. Thomas currently serves as a Data Curator.

Contact: Sabitra Pradhan, Myco-Diversity Program Director; Michael B Thomas, Data Manager (sabitrap2008@gmail.com)

Home Page: https://www.facebook.com/www.nmc.gov.bt/

Collection Type: Preserved Specimens

Management: Live Data managed directly within data portal

Global Unique Identifier: eb977f49-64b9-48e6-85f3-6101bff84df4

Usage Rights: CC BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial)

Rights Holder: National Mushroom Centre, Royal Government of Bhutan

Access Rights: , CC BY-NC 4.0 International (Attribution Non-Commercial)

Address:

• 2,372 specimen records
• 2,268 (96%) georeferenced
• 28 (1%) with images
• 1,886 (80%) identified to species
• 99 families
• 255 genera
• 745 species
• 752 total taxa (including subsp. and var.)