Ethnographic interviews and fungal surveys document different local names, woodland and open habitats, and distinct mushroom and desert-truffle traditions.

A young shepherd in the foreground of a green Garmian pasture with grazing sheep and goats beneath cloudy skies
Pastoral landscape in Garmian, photographed during the research published by Pieroni and colleagues in 2019, figure 3. Landscape context, not a mushroom identification photograph. © Pieroni, Zahir, Amin and Sõukand, 2019 · CC BY 4.0 · Unmodified.

Local names and the knowledge behind them

Research in southern Iraqi Kurdistan records several mushroom names, including Karçik, Karg and Xarçek. The same study distinguishes the desert-truffle names Dolaman, Dombalan and Dumaran. Its interviews with 123 participants in twelve villages documented two folk fungal categories corresponding to four scientific taxa. [1] A folk category is a community’s way of grouping organisms; it need not match a single biological species. Names should therefore be connected to a place, language variety and recorded use.

What the Erbil surveys actually count

Farid Toma, Hero Ismael and Nareen Faqi Abdulla’s 2018 survey reports sixteen species from sixteen genera across Erbil Governorate. Sites include the city centre as well as Barzan, Khalefan, Mergasur, Shaqlawa and other localities. The list ranges from Pleurotus ostreatus to wood-growing Trametes hirsuta and the earthball Scleroderma verrucosum. [2] This is a record of fungal diversity, not a menu. The number describes what that particular survey collected and identified; it is neither a complete regional total nor a count of foods gathered by every Kurdish household. Scientific inventories and interviews about cooking answer different questions.

Beyond the oak-forest floor

A separate study in Iranian Kurdistan followed fourteen wild populations of the Pleurotus eryngii complex around Sanandaj, Hane Gelan and Saral in 2003–05. The researchers recorded associations with Ferula, Prangos and Pimpinella, herbaceous plants in the Apiaceae family. The main season in their observations ran from late March to late May, and the reported concentrations were at roughly 2,100–2,750 metres. [3] These mushrooms illustrate why regional fungal ecology cannot be reduced to old oak woodland. The authors combined visible and microscopic features with mating experiments, rather than identifying populations from a photograph alone. They also recorded the local name Kamma. Their findings concern those surveyed populations and should not be extended automatically to every mushroom sold under a similar name. [3]

Mushrooms and desert truffles at the table

The 2019 interviews record mushrooms boiled and fried, while desert truffles have a wider range of reported preparations. [1] A 2025 comparative study investigated truffle hunting through interviews with 58 hunters in 21 locations across Iraq, eastern Turkey, Syria and Sardinia. Its Iraqi cases include Kurdish and Arab communities. [4] That wider comparison helps place Kurdish truffle knowledge within neighbouring food economies. It also distinguishes a practice of finding underground desert fungi from gathering the above-ground fruiting bodies represented in other mushroom surveys. Neither activity belongs to one uniform forest landscape.

Habitats, livelihoods and responsible documentation

The 2025 researchers discuss perceived threats including erosion, climate change, market pressures and conflict. Their subject includes livelihoods and local ecological knowledge alongside the fungi themselves. [4] Recording a harvest therefore requires more than a species list: who gathers it, where, in which season, how it is named and what happens between collection and sale all matter. The sources below provide evidence for particular studies and communities. This article is a cultural and ecological introduction; its names and photographs do not establish whether a wild specimen is safe to eat.

Sources and further reading

  1. Andrea Pieroni, Hawre Zahir, Hawraz Ibrahim M. Amin and Renata Sõukand, Where tulips and crocuses are popular food snacks, Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine 15:59 (2019), table 1 and figure 3; CC BY 4.0.
  2. Farid M. Toma, Hero M. Ismael and Nareen Q. Faqi Abdulla, Survey and Identification of some New Record Mushrooms in Erbil Governorate, Rafidain Journal of Science 27/4 (2018), pp. 19–32, DOI 10.33899/rjs.2018.159365; journal abstract.
  3. J. Abdollahzadeh, M. R. Asef and T. Mirmahmoodi, The Pleurotus eryngii species-complex in Kurdistan Region of Iran, Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 10/17 (2007), pp. 3006–3009, DOI 10.3923/pjbs.2007.3006.3009.
  4. Ethnoecology of desert truffles hunting: A cross-cultural comparative study on practices and perceptions in the Mediterranean and the Near East, Journal of Arid Environments 229 (2025), 105367; abstract and research highlights.