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Mushrooms

Cantharellus
   The genus Cantharellus contains many species known generally as chanterelles, though for the most part the name refers to the most famous species Cantharellus cibarius. Associated with conifers and in California with live oak.

║ Mushrooms ║

Chanterelle, Yellow Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)
 
   Cantharellus cibarius is one of the world's best edible mushrooms. Chanterelles grow on the ground under hardwoods or conifers, and are usually fairly easy to spot. They are medium-sized or large, yellow to orange-yellow mushrooms that feature a convex, flat, or shallowly depressed cap, a central and fleshy stem, and false gills on the under side of the cap. Chanterelles are well known for their fruity, apricot-like odor, best detected when you have several of them together in your bag or basket. The most prolific patches are in central Illinois, under Quaking Aspen and Big-Toothed Aspen in northern Michigan, and under birch in Finland. Mushrooms matching the description of Cantharellus cibarius can be found across North America, growing alone, scattered, or gregariously in summer and fall (or over winter in warmer climates).
Description:
   Cap: 1-20 cm across; more or less convex when young (often with a rolled-under margin); becoming flat or shallowly depressed, with a wavy and irregular margin; tacky when wet; smooth or with a few tiny appressed fibers; pale yellow to egg-yolk yellow to almost orange.
   Undersurface: With well developed false gills that frequently feature cross-veins; running deeply down the stem; colored like the cap or paler; sometimes staining brownish to orangish.
   Stem: 3-8 cm long; 1-3 cm thick; extremely variable in shape (from thin, more or less equal, and graceful to thick, stocky and nearly club-shaped); smooth below the false gills; colored like the cap or paler; sometimes bruising brownish to orangish.
   Flesh: White; solid; unchanging when sliced.

Yellow Foot, Winter Chanterelle, Funnel Chanterelle (Cantharellus tubaeformis)
   Growing alone, gregariously, or in clusters in moss or on well decayed, moss-covered logs in conifer bogs; northern and montane North America; summer and fall or over winter on the West Coast. This mushroom is a wonderful and often overlooked edible, every bit as good as its better-known cousin, the Chanterelle. In Finland, Cantharellus tubaeformis is known as the "suppilovahvero", and is just as popular as the "kanttarelli"; one can find it piled high in open-air markets, and served up in many delicious ways in restaurants.
Description:
    Cap: 1-5 cm wide; convex at first, soon becoming vase-shaped and eventually becoming perforated on the center; with a wavy and irregular margin when mature; smooth or somewhat roughened; sticky or waxy when fresh; dark yellowish brown to blackish brown, fading with age.
   Undersurface: With well developed false gills that fork frequently and have cross-veins; yellowish gray, becoming brownish.
   Stem: 3-8 cm long; to 1 cm wide; more or less equal; becoming hollow; smooth; yellow.
   Spores ellipsoid, smooth, 8-12 x 6-10 μm. Flesh: Thin; pale; insubstantial.

Pacific Golden Chanterelle (Cantharellus formosus)
   Growing alone, gregariously, or in small clusters in old-growth and second-growth forests in fall and winter; British Columbia, Oregon, and northern California.
Description:
   Cap: 2-14 cm; convex with an inrolled margin, becoming broadly convex, flat, or shallowly depressed with an inrolled, uplifted, or irregular-wavy margin; the center not becoming perforated; fairly smooth, finely suede-like, or slightly roughened; bright to dull orange-yellow, with a grayish to brownish pigment layer that is nearly invisible in wet conditions but becomes more prominent with drying or with age in dry weather, appearing as tiny, darker scales; often bruising and discoloring yellowish.
   Undersurface: With well developed false gills; pale orange-yellow, with a pinkish cast in most collections.
   Stem: 4-8 cm long; to 2 cm thick at apex; usually tapering gracefully downward; more or less smooth; colored like the cap or paler; often bruising yellow near the base; fleshy.
   Flesh: Whitish to very pale yellowish.

White Chanterelle (Cantharellus subalbidus)
   The White Chanterelle is similar in size and shape to the Chanterelle, Cantharellus cibarius, but the White Chanterelle's identifying features are its white color and its orangeish bruising. Growing alone or scattered; fall and winter; occasional; northwestern North America. Fruiting from late fall to mid-winter.
Description:
    Pileus: Cap 5-10 cm broad, convex, margin incurved, expanding to nearly plane or depressed at the disc with an uplifted, wavy to irregular margin; surface smooth to appressed squamulose, dry, whitish to cream, bruising yellowish-brown to tawny-brown; flesh thick, whitish, firm, becoming ochraceous to tawny where exposed. Odor and taste mild.
   Lamellae: Gills consisting of blunt, anastomosing ridges, well forked near the margin, strongly decurrent, whitish to cream, staining like the pileus when injured.
   Stipe: Stipe 2-5 cm long, 2-3 cm thick, fleshy, usually centrally attached, tapering toward the base; surface dry, smooth to somewhat roughened, concolorous with the cap, bruising dull yellow-brown to tawny-brown, especially near the base.
   Spores: Spores 7.5-9.0 x 5-6 μm, elliptical, smooth, nonamyloid; spores white in deposit.

Black Trumpet Mushroom, Black Chanterelle (Cantharellus cornucopioides, Craterellus cornucopioides)
   This wonderful edible mushroom is easily recognized, but not so easily found. They are small and black, and something about their shape and fruiting pattern makes them extremely difficult to see, but it is well worth your effort. The Black Trumpets are fairly safe edibles for beginners, since they are not likely to be confused with many other mushrooms. Craterellus cornucopioides grows alone, scattered, or gregariously in eastern North America, but typically in tightly packed clusters of four or more mushrooms on the West Coast. It is widely distributed, and reported under hardwoods and conifers.
Description:
    Fruiting Body: 2-7 cm wide; up to 10 cm high; tubular at first, becoming deeply vase-shaped; the upper edge rolled under when young and often partly rolled under in maturity; thin-fleshed; without a clearly defined cap and stem.
  Upper (Inner) Surface: Black to dark gray (or, rarely, pale yellowish); smooth or, more commonly, roughened or finely scaly with dark fibers and scales over a paler, grayish or grayish brown base color.
   Under (Outer) Surface: Smooth or very shallowly wrinkled; rarely with a few deeper folds near the cap margin; blackish (rarely pale yellowish), becoming dusted with the spore color at maturity (salmon tinged, yellowish, or whitish).
   Flesh: Thin and brittle; blackish. Spore Print: Salmon tinged, yellowish, or whitish.
 

║ Mushrooms ║
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