Background: Ecuador is divided into three geographical regions: Amazon, Coast and Mountains, on which one having its own empirical knowledge and traditions in relation to their natural environments. Studies about traditional knowledge of macrofungi were initially carried out in the Brazilian Amazon and later in Colombia, Guyana and Venezuela. In Ecuador few studies have been published. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate many ethnomycological data of the edible mushrooms used by several ethnic Ecuadorian groups, discussing the meanings of species' vernacular names and related myths.