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Misapplied Names
Cantharellus cibarius
Cap (Pileus): 3 3 – 12 cm broad; convex at first then planar, becoming depressed and finally unevenly funnel shaped, with many folds and lumps; margins even when young then grooved with maturity, incurved when young, becoming broadly scalloped, then cracking, eroding, torn and lacerate with maturity, undulating; surface dry, appearing minutely velvety, soft and chamois-like, unpolished, with flattened scales (centre generally smooth without scales), grooved or with shallow pits; colour dark orange with brownish overtones, becoming paler towards margin, darkening to orange red when drying or bruised, changing colour when drying, scales orange brown; context 1.0 – 2.5 cm at junction with stipe, firm, and slightly spongy, at times with a thick cuticle, white, but pale yellow towards cap, with some yellowing where cut; taste indistinct; odour most frequently indistinct but pleasant, also described as ‘fruity’ or ‘apricot-’ to ‘peach-’like.
Folds or Veins (Hymenium): decurrent; folds branching repeatedly and irregularly, with cross folds; distant to crowded; attached solidly to stipe without peeling away from the base; edges blunt, smooth at times cracking; surface unpolished; 2 - 5 mm broad; colour pinkish at first then pale orange, often same colour as stipe.
Stalk (Stipe): 3.5 – 9 cm long X 0.4 – 2.5 cm wide at apex, 0.5 – 2.0 cm wide at base; equal to tapering downwards, at time flexuous, central to off centre; surface dry to moist, at times with fine grooves, unpolished, smooth, often with peeling fibrils; colour yellow to pale or deep (when rain-soaked) orange, often same colour as hymenium, bruising deep salmon orange; context white, stringy, firm, immediately bruising yellow when cut.
Spore deposit pale pink; spores 8 – 9 X 5 – 6 µm, ellipsoid, smooth, inamyloid; basidia long and narrow; hyphae with clamp connections.
Comments: This edible and choice mushroom is harvested throughout its range along with C. cibarius var. roseocanus and C. subalbidus and is included in the provincial chanterelle harvest. It can be very difficult to separate the chanterelles (particularly after they’ve been picked and permitted to bruise or dry), but C. formosus is deep (sometimes described as “dirty”) orange, generally has a pinkish tinged, pale hymenium with folds that are usually paler than the cap but the same colour as the stipe. The brilliant yellow-orange hymenium of Cantharellus cibarius var. roseocanus is usually more deeply coloured than the cap and contrasts with the stipe. Cantharellus subalbidus has a creamy to pinkish hymenium and unbruised fruiting bodies are generally creamy to very pale ivory overall.
Gomphus kauffmanii and pale forms of G. floccosus can be confused with C. formosus but they have deeply hollowed, vase-shaped fruiting bodies, extremely scaly single caps, and pale shallow folds. The look-alike, Paxillus involutus, the “Poison Pax” has very thin, blade-like true gills rather than folds or veins, strongly inrolled bearded margins and the entire mushroom stains brown. This mushroom is poisonous and contains cumulative hemolytic toxins. From the top, the false chanterelle, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca, can be confused with this chanterelle, but it has thin, orange to bright orange true gills instead of folds, a saprophytic habit, and a more delicate, far less fleshy stature. Seen also from the top, the edible hedgehog -- Hydnum repandum and the belly button mushroom, H. umbilicatum -- might be confused with C. formosus, but their spines or teeth on the hymenium readily distinguish them. The edible woolly pine spike, Chroogomphus tomentosus, is also a bright orange, unpolished, velvety mushroom, but it has black spores and dull distant orange thick true gills that become brownish black with age.
Habit, Ecology, Habitat and Range
Cantharellus formosus fruits alone or is scattered on the forest floor. It is a mycorrhizal fungus that fruits from July to Novermber and is found predominantly in 30 – 100 year old stands of second growth western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and spruce forests (Picea sitchensis). Occasionally it is associated with lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta). It is infrequently found in old-growth forests or in the southern portion of the province.
Ecological studies of C. formosus in California indicate that this fungus fruits in soils with low exchangeable acidity (an indicator of a soils storage capacity for available plant nutrients - soils with low exchangeable acidity indicates low fertility), of moderate duff depth (11 cm) and in areas with bare humus and needle cover of less than 30%. Research in western Canada and the U.S.A. indicates that clear-cutting or heavy thinning of forestes reduces chanterelle productivity due to removal of mycorrhizal host trees and the drying of the forest floor. In addition, for one to two years after logging, the remaining slash obscures the ground, making it difficult to find chanterelles. However, moderate to light forest thinning retains a sufficient number of mycorrhizal host trees so C. formosus can continue to fruit with only brief interruption.
While this species does occur in interior forest, it is more commonly collected in south, mid and north coastal conifer forests.
For many years this mushroom was mistakenly called Cantherellus cibarius (the golden chanterelle). However, genetic examination of the western chanterelles in the province and northwest states of the U.S.A. revealed that our common Pacific Northwest chanterelle is not C. cibarius but C. formosus.
In 1999, the Pacific Golden Chanterelle was designated the official state mushroom of Oregon. In general, chanterelles are the most commonly collected mushrooms worldwide. The Romans used the golden chanterelle (C. cibarius) extensively in their diets and it was recorded in some of the earliest botanical literature (Clusius 1601).
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