Annotated checklist of fungi in Cyprus Island . 1 . Larger Basidiomycota

An annotated checklist of wild fungi living in Cyprus Island has been compiled broughting together all the information collected from the different works dealing with fungi in this area throughout the three centuries of mycology in Cyprus. This part contains 363 taxa of macroscopic Basidiomycota.


INTRODUCTION
In the first record, Chatin (1897) dealt with Terfezia aphroditis.Nattrass (1937) in the most important work ever done in Cyprus, were documented 92 species of anamorphic fungi, 104 species of ascomycetes, 148 species of basidiomycetes and 22 species of zygomycetes; Nattrass & Papaioannou (1938) added 20 species more.The same year Dearness (1938), in a note, dealt with the species from the work of Nattrass (1937), but there were no news.Altson (1956), in a research into the cause of a rootrot illness on Vicia faba, contributed with one species.The following year, 44 samples more were studied in Georghiou & Papadopoullos (1957).Sixteen years later, all the previous information was compiled in the work of Zyngas (1973) in which, 102 new references to the island were reported by the author.Ten years later Willoughby (1983) dealt with Rhizophlyctis rosea.In the new millennium, Winey (2005) in an illustrated book about macromycetes described 10 ascomycetes and 180 basidiomycetes to the island.In the next years, most authors dealt with single species originating from Cyprus: Tsopelas & Nicolau (2005) reported Heterobasidion annosum for the first time and Tsopelas et al. (2008) researched Seiridium cardinale and Neophytou & Ioannou (2009) recorded Graphiola phoenicis.Loizides (2008) dealt with macrofungi: five species of ascomycetes and twenty-seven basidiomycetes.Momany & Gücel (2009) in an illustrated guide gave information about 105 different species

MATERIALS AND METHODS
All the previous information dealing with fungi in Cyprus Island were compiled.The different collections were disposed chronologically in each single species including the name of the species and the authors' epithets, substrate/habitat, references and notes if necessary.Duplicated species from two or more authors were grouped in a single one.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
138 species of anamorphs, 195 species of ascomycetes, 543 species of basidomycetes and 33 species of zygomycetes have been arranged alphabetically in chronological order.For further information see Table 2.

Russula aurea Pers.
In black pine forests, early in autumn in high temperatures.Loizides et al. (2011). Frequent.

CONCLUSIONS
At the time the author was looking for references and information dealing with fungi in Cyprus Island; the oldest documented information collected was Chatin (1897).
For this reason, it is supposed that the history of the mycology in Cyprus started with this data.Despite the fact that Cyprus Island is reported to be an area with rather scarce surveys and mycological literature, a good bunch of works dealing with fungi in this area is aported in this report.The most important contribution of the current paper is the compiled information broughting together different works dealing with fungi in this area throughout the three centuries of mycology in Cyprus.Several macrofungi labelled as rare in the notes of this checklist such as Amanita torrendii, Chlorophyllum molybdites, Conferticium ochraceum, Hyphoderma nemorale, Myriostoma coliforme, Rectipilus cistophilus, Sparassis crispa, Thanatephorus sterigmaticus, Tomentella asperula and Vuilleminia megalospora, should be considered under protection by local authorities.Nevertheless, Battarrea stevenii and Boletus rhodoxanthus, wich are catalogued in many European countries as endangered species, appear to be very common in Cyprus.Nowadays, only a small group of local amateur mycologists are dealing with macrofungi in Cyprus, and no one with microfungi.We are far away to know the mycobiota of the island, so it will be very important to organize new forays similar to British Mycological Association's Overseas Meeting 2011 in order to improve the knowledge of fungi in this area.