Golden chanterelle
A trumpet-shaped golden mushroom of Pacific Northwest conifer forests that lives joined to tree roots and trades food with the trees.
Golden chanterelle at a glance
Cantharellus formosus GOHL-den shan-tuh-REL; Cantharellus formosus is kan-thuh-REL-us for-MOH-sus
- Type
- Fungus · mushroom
- Diet
- Other
- Size
- The golden cap is usually about 2 to 4 inches across (5 to 10 cm), about the size of an adult's palm or the top of a coffee mug.
- Lifespan
- The hidden mycelium can live in the soil for many years. The golden mushroom you see above ground lasts only a week or two before it rots or gets eaten.
- Conservation
- Not evaluated (not on the IUCN Red List)
Eats sugars traded from conifer tree roots
A chanterelle is not really one mushroom but the fruit of a huge underground web of threads called a mycelium. Those threads wrap around the roots of conifer trees and trade with them: the fungus gives the tree water and minerals, and the tree gives the fungus sugar it made from sunlight. This partnership is called mycorrhiza.
Is it safe to touch?
Never eat any wild mushroom you find. A real golden chanterelle is safe to eat only when an expert picks it, and it has poisonous look-alikes such as the jack-o'-lantern mushroom, which can make you very sick. Touching a chanterelle is fine; eating a wild-picked one is not, unless a trained adult is completely sure of it.
A golden chanterelle looks like a small trumpet made of butter-colored wax, tucked in the moss of a Pacific Northwest conifer forest. But the mushroom you see is only the fruit. The living thing is much larger and completely hidden: a web of fine threads called a mycelium, spread through the soil, wrapped around the roots of the fir and hemlock trees overhead. Fungus and tree feed each other there. The chanterelle passes water and minerals up to the tree, and the tree passes down sugar it made from sunlight, a trade called mycorrhiza.
Because the chanterelle needs a living tree to survive, it is almost impossible to farm. Nearly every one that people cook was gathered from the wild. Up close it gives a couple of clues to its name. Under the cap it has no thin, flat gills, only blunt forked ridges that run partway down the stem, and a fresh one often smells faintly of apricots. Those details matter, because they help tell a real chanterelle from the poisonous look-alikes that copy its color.
That is the whole reason for the one firm rule here: never eat a wild mushroom you find. A golden chanterelle is safe only when an expert has picked it, and one of its look-alikes, the jack-o’-lantern mushroom, can make a person very sick. Touching a chanterelle in the woods does no harm. Eating a wild-picked one is a different thing entirely, and it is never a kid’s call to make.
Did you know?
- A chanterelle does not have thin, flat gills under its cap like many mushrooms. Instead it has blunt, forked ridges that run part way down the stem. Knowing that helps tell it apart from its poisonous look-alikes.
- Chanterelles are almost never farmed. Because they must grow attached to living forest trees, nearly every chanterelle people cook was gathered in the wild.
- Many people say a fresh chanterelle smells like apricots.
Common questions
Can I eat a chanterelle I find?
No. Never eat a wild mushroom unless a mushroom expert says it is safe. Chanterelles have poisonous look-alikes.
What is a mushroom, really?
It is the fruit of a much bigger web of underground threads called a fungus, the way an apple is the fruit of a tree.
How does a chanterelle get its food?
It trades with tree roots, giving water and minerals and getting sugar back. That partnership is called mycorrhiza.
Why can't you buy fresh chanterelles from a farm?
They have to grow attached to living forest trees, so almost all are gathered from the wild.