21 September 2020
21.09.2020- Zeus Olympius is a very rare type of mushroom found in Kosovo, which is known only from two other places in the world. The mushroom was first discovered in Kosovo by a team of Macedonian mycologists in 2018, during a research in Prevallë within the Sharr Mountain National Park, at an altitude of about 1,600 meters. The area where the mushroom was found is a zone of untouched natural Bosnian pine (Pinus leucodermis) forests, which is a Balkan endemic pine.
Zeus Olympius was first found in 1986 on Mount Olympus in Greece, while in 2012 it was also found on Mount Pirin in Bulgaria. The fruiting bodies of the mushroom initially appear as black spherical shells that emerge under the bark. When it matures, the fruiting body breaks through the bark, while the shell divides into small black teeth that cover a disc colored orange to gold, with dimensions of 0.2–5 mm in diameter. It grows in small groups on dead parts of small branches of Bosnian pine. The species is part of the Global Fungal Red List Initiative, where it has been classified as 'potentially critically endangered.' Data for Kosovo has already been incorporated into the database of the Global Fungal Red List Initiative.
The mushroom was found and identified by the mycology team led by Prof. Mitko Karadelev from the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Skopje, as part of their project "Mushrooms of Kosovo: Creating the Checklist and the Preliminary Red List and Proposal of Important Mushroom Areas" funded by the Rufford Foundation from England. The team had previously carried out similar projects in Macedonia and Albania. So far, the mushrooms of Kosovo have been little studied, and there was little official data available. The project has produced data on over 380 different species, including them in a specially created online database, Fungi of Kosovo.
The list, prepared in line with IUCN criteria, will serve as a basis for the compilation of an Official Red List of Fungi and the preparation of legislation for the protection of fungi. Important fungal areas have been identified based on the presence of rare and endangered species, the number of individuals, and the mycological significance of the habitat. The list and important fungal areas will be key for the conservation of fungi, considering major threats such as overexploitation, fragmentation, and destruction of fungal habitats.
Read more: https://macfungi.webs.com/apps/blog/show/45770807-the-extremely-rare-zeus-olympius-observed-in-kosovo