Mushrooming

Mushroom hunting is serious business in Northern Cyprus – really. A mushroom is actually the fruit of a fungus, which is simply a net of threadlike fibres called a mycelium, which grows in soil, wood or decaying matter. Most mushrooms are edible and highly delicious, some aren’t edible, and the rest are deadly poisonous, so if you want to go mushroom hunting in Northern Cyprus – take notice!
The function of a mushroom is to produce spores which are the bits that make it reproduce. Spore identification is the master key for fungal identification. Some mushrooms produce their spores on gills (gilled fungi); some in pores (pore fungi), some on teeth (tooth fungi), some inside a leathery pouch (puffballs), some on the inside of shallow cups (cup fungi) and some simply on the surface of the mushroom (coral fungi and others). The spores fall off, get blown away by wind, or are carried by animals, water or insects. If a spore lands in a suitable spot, it germinates and grows into a new mycelium.
Mushrooms fall into two major groups. Ascomycota includes morels, cup fungi and truffles. They produce their spores in a closed ascus which opens upon maturity, and are called spore shooters. Basidiomycota includes gilled agarics, boletes, polypores and jelly fungi. They bear their pores on naked basidia called droppers, because they drop down the gills as they mature. The mushrooms most people recognise are the gilled fungi. These typical parasol-shaped mushrooms have caps with bladelike gills on the underside and stems with or without rings. The pore fungi are similar in appearance but have a spongy layer of tubes of pores on the underside of the cap instead of gills.
Mushroom collecting requires the simplest of equipment: an ice box or flat-bottomed basket; small plastic or polystyrene boxes; a roll of waxed paper; a digging tool; and paper for notes. Be sure to collect the entire mushroom, including the base. Take only fresh, young mushrooms that are free of insect damage. Each type of mushroom should be wrapped separately in waxed paper and kept in small polystyrene boxes along with any notes you might want to make about the habitat and appearance of the mushroom. Don’t use plastic wrap as it just hastens decay. It’s a good idea to note where the mushroom is growing (on wood, soil or moss for example); whether it’s single or in clusters, the colour of the caps, gills and stem; and any other distinctive features. The more you can observe about the mushroom in the field, the easier it will be to identity.
Individual spores are too small to be seen with the naked eye, but you can make a spore print to show the colour of the spores which is an important identifying characteristic for many mushrooms, especially the gilled fungi. To make a spore print, cut the stem off and place the cap gill-side or pore-side on a piece of white paper for coloured spores or coloured paper for white spores. (For best results use white paper and black paper). Cover with a bowl or jar. If the mushroom is at the right stage, not too young, old or deteriorated, the spores will slowly collect on the paper. A spore print will be visible in 12-24 hours. There’s over 100 different species belonging to 60 different genera in Northern Cyprus.