Cantharellus cibarius    Fr.:Fr. 

common name(s) : Chanterelle, Girolle 

New classification: Basidiomycota/Agaricomycotina/Agaricomycetes/Incertae sedis/Cantharellales/Cantharellaceae  
Former classification: Basidiomycota/Homobasidiomycetes/Aphyllophoromycetideae/Cantharellales/Cantharellaceae  
(unconfirmed synonyms: Cantharellus edulis, Cantharellus rufipes, Cantharellus vulgaris, Cantharellus cibarius-neglectus)  

edibility : edible, good

photo gallery of  Cantharellus cibarius
photo gallery of  Cantharellus cibarius potential confusions with  Cantharellus cibarius toxicity of Cantharellus cibarius genus Cantharellus  

The cap is uniform, ochre-yellow to egg yolk yellow or yellow-orange, fading with age, convex to funnel-shaped, then depressed at the centre; its margin is incurved a long time, then irregular, thick, lobed and wavy. The cap surface is smooth to sometimes slightly scaly at the disk, more or less shiny, slightly pruinose in the youth, dry.

The stem is concolorous to cap or paler, tapering towards its base but slightly evolving to cap at the top, without ring.

The flesh is yellowish white, more yellow closer to the skin, thick, quite firm, unchanging; its taste is mild then slightly peppery or acidic; the odour is fruity, of apricots or Mirabelle plums; its texture is fibrous.

The gills are yellow, same colour as cap, but these are not gills, but folds or ridges, decurrent, forked and quite distant, connected together at the base by small veins . The spore print is pale ochre cream. This species is mycorrhizal. It grows on the ground, in broad-leaved woods (low grounds) or coniferous forests (high ground), windy exposures, hillsides, clearings, on poor soils, on a rather acid or hardly calcareous soil, with beech, chestnut, oak, spruce, pine, fir, birch.

The fruiting period takes place from May to December.
Dimensions: width of cap approximately 7 cm (between 1 and 15 cm)
  height of stem approximately 5 cm (between 2 and 10 cm)
  thickness of stem (at largest section) approximately 11 mm (between 5 and 20 mm)

Chemical tests : none.

Distinctive features : Entirely yolk-yellow to bright orange; stem not clearly distinguished from cap; cap margin often wavy; fertile surface under cap composed of decurrent vein-like ridges, not gills

Cantharellus cibarius is frequent and very widely present in the forest of Rambouillet, and is frequent, more generally speaking .
here should be the distribution map of Cantharellus cibarius in the forest of Rambouillet
Above : distribution map of Cantharellus cibarius in the forest of Rambouillet



page updated on 14/01/18