Food problem is the most important one the world faces today. In addition to insufficiency of food to feed the growing population, malnutrition, especially lack of protein, threatens developing countries like India. Many ambitious programmes were launched throughout the world to augment nutrious foor production. Cultivation of edible mushrooms is considered as one of the means of solving this problem, as mushrooms are rich in protein, vitamines, amino acids and minerals and can be cultivated on farm and on industrial wastes. The substrate mainly used for mushroom cultivation in our country is paddy and wheat straw, the scarcity of which is increasing day-by-day due to the introduction of high yielding dwarf varieties. Hence search for alternative substrates is being made. In countries like Korea, Japan and China wood, wood wastes and stumps of trees are extensively used for the cultivation of different varieties of mushrooms. In our country rubber wood and its saw-dust are available regularly in plenty which may be used for mushroom cultivation. With this aim a preliminary study was conducted at the RRII. Three species of Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus sajor-caju, P. citrinopileatus and P. florida) were inoculated on rubber wood and saw dust from rubber wood. The growth of mushrooms and formation of fruiting bodies, the edible part of mushroom, were observed. The results indicated that there is no adversary factor inhibiting growth of these fungi in rubber wood. Though button formation was observed in P. sajor-caju and P. citrinopileatus they did not attain mushroom stage. In P. florida formation was complete, but the size was small. All the tree mushrooms tested also grew on saw dust from rubber wood under sterile conditions. However detailed investigations using new verieties of mushrooms to increase production without much contamination are necessary and economic aspects considered before recommending rubber wood and saw dust for mushroom cultivation.