Mapping fungal ignorance: Checklists of fungi and fungal-like organisms known for Egypt in two centuries

Information concerning biodiversity and conservation of plants and animals in Egypt are fully available, but for fungi and fungus-like organisms (other organisms traditionally studied by mycologists), still missing and overlooked till 2010 when Abdel-Azeem published a full review of the history of mycology in Egypt, together with a checklist of 2281 species of fungi for the country, and an assessment of future perspectives for mycology in Egypt. Until that review, information about fungi from Egypt had been fragmentary and highly dispersed in many often obscure and difficult to obtain publications. Abdel-Azeem’ checklist greatly increased the number of fungi recorded from the country and, significantly, is the first fully documented checklist of fungi for any country in the Arabic speaking world. Records of fungi in Egypt from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) database (4491 occurrences represented by 602 taxa), and that of the former International Mycological Institute fungal reference collection (IMI) (650 species) were also considered. Updated checklists of fungi are very limited in Egypt even they are one of the most important and critical tool for conservation. With this Mini-review we aim to provide an up-to-date overview on the recent developments on biodiversity and documentation of fungi and fungus-like organisms in Egypt. The documentation of fungal diversity in Egypt is urgently needed because natural habitats worldwide are being lost on a large scale through climate change and to promote proper exploration as a tool to facilitate fungal identification and to aid conceptualization and justification of future research projects.