Rhizospheric Mycobiome Associated with Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo in Kashmir Himalaya: Diversity, Distribution, and Conservation Implications for Sustainable Growth

There is a great scope of understanding and exploring the enigmas of rhizospheric fungi associated with medicinally important orchid in Kashmir Himalaya. This study was carried out to isolate and characterize rhizospheric soil fungi associated with Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo. Isolated rhizospheric fungi showed significant variation in relative frequency and abundance across different sites in Kashmir Himalaya. Based on morphological, cultural and microscopic characteristics seventeen fungi were found to be associated with rhizosphere of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) such as, Alternaria alternata (Fries) Keissle, Aspergillus candidus Link, Aspergillus flavus Link, Aspergillus niger Van Tieghem, Aspergillus sydowii (Bainier and Sartory) Thom and church, Cephalosporium acremonium corda, Circinella muscae (Sorokin) Berlese and De Toni, Curvularia pallescens Boedij, Fusarium chlamydosporum Wollenw. and Reinking, Fusarium solani (Mart.) Sacc., Penicillium brevicompactum Dierckx, Penicillium oxalicum Currie and Thom, Penicillium verrucosum Dierickx, Talaromyces falvus (Kloccker) Stolk and Samson, Trichoderma asperellium Samuels, Lieckfeldt and Nirenberg, Trichoderma harzianum Rifa and Trichothecium roseum (Pers.) Link. These fungi can be utilized to safeguard and sustain the population of Dactylorhiza hatagirea (D. Don) Soo through in vivo methods and can also be harnessed for their antimicrobial or antibiotic properties, particularly in combating pathogenic fungi. The current study also revealed that Dactylorhiza hatagirea is classified as Near Threatened (NT) following the IUCN criterion, so warrants conservation.