Maui MushroomFungi of Hawaiʻi
Hawaiʻi’s fungi are diverse, still being documented, and shaped by deep time and human movement. A Hawaiian name, a local sighting, or a locally grown crop each tells us something different.
A familiar form
Wood-ear fungi · Auricularia spp.
Pepeiao—“ear”—is the name used in Hawaiʻi for ear-shaped wood-ear fungi. The soft, folded fruitbodies often grow on dead or dying wood. They connect food traditions, local observation, and the work of learning to identify fungi well.
“Pepeiao” is a meaningful local name, but it does not by itself establish whether a particular specimen is native, introduced, or endemic. Species-level identification and biogeographic status depend on evidence, including well-documented collections and, where needed, DNA.
Never eat a wild mushroom based on a common name, photo, or website description. Identification and food safety require qualified, specimen-specific review.
Three different questions
Native fungi arrived without human transport. Endemic fungi are native and found nowhere else. Hawaiian research has described putatively endemic mushrooms from native montane forests; the inventory remains incomplete.
Research example: several agaric species described from native wet forests are considered putatively endemic.
Introduced fungi arrived through human activity—often with plants, soil, wood, or other materials—and now occur in Hawaiʻi. Some are widespread; others affect crops or native ecosystems.
A species being found in Hawaiʻi does not mean it is native to Hawaiʻi.
Cultivated describes a mushroom intentionally grown by people. It is not an origin category: a crop grown on Maui may come from a species native to Hawaiʻi, introduced to Hawaiʻi, or native elsewhere.
Ask both: where is this species from, and where/how was this crop grown?
A living record
MyCoPortal’s Hawaiian macrofungi checklist is a useful starting point for named records and cited collections. It is not a complete census: research notes that native and endemic fungi remain under-documented, and status can be uncertain when species boundaries or collection history are unclear.
Explore the Hawaiian fungi checklist