First report of the rare tooth fungus Hericium erinaceus in North African temperate forests

Abstract

The rare fungus Hericium erinaceus (Bull.) Pers. was collected from temperate forests in northwestern Tunisia and described for the first time in Africa. In this paper, we report data about the distribution, ecology, morphology and molecular identification of H. erinaceus. Collected data may help expand our knowledge on this critically endangered rare species worldwide.

Keywords:

• Hericium erinaceus; North Africa
• morphology
• molecular analysis

Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Rkhissi Sebti for his help in picking and primary identification of the collected specimen and Mr Aoueld Soula Bechir for his help in the proofreading of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.