First Collection and Identification of Wild Mushrooms in Western Iraq

Fungi are found everywhere and affect our lives every day from mushroom to industrially important product, plant helpers, plant pathogens and to human diseases. Therefore, we concentrated our attention on fungi that can be grown in our environment, while maintaining an interest in their performance in nature. About fifteen different species were collected and identified from different villages of Heet district, Anbar province, Iraq. Out of the fifteen, two species, naming Armillaria mellea and Coprinus disseminates were identified as species level and others: Pleurotus spp., Agaricus spp., Calvatia sp., Telephora sp., Fomes sp., Lepiota sp. and Morchella sp. as genus level only. This study was aimed to collect and identify wild mushrooms that grow naturally in different orchards and gardens on 2009-2013 in Heet city. A total of 15 species in 9 genera, 9 families and 5 orders belong to woody and fleshy species were identified for the first time in Anbar province. The collected mushrooms were appearing from November to February of each year.