False chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Agaricomycetidae (Agaricomycetes)
- Order: Boletales
- Family: Hygrophoropsidaceae (Hygrophoropsis)
- Genus: Hygrophoropsis (Gigroforopsis)
- Species: Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca (False Chanterelle)
- Other names for the mushroom:
- Orange talker
- Kokoschka
Synonyms:
Orange talker
- Gigroforopsis orange
- Kokoschka
- Agaricus aurantiacus
- Merulius aurantiacus
- Cantharellus aurantiacus
- Clitocybe aurantiaca
- Agaricus alectorolophoides
- Agaricus subcantharellus
- Cantharellus brachypodus
- Cantharellus ravenelii
- Merulius brachypodes
Description
Hat : 2-5 centimeters in diameter, under good conditions - up to 10 centimeters, first convex, with a bent or strongly bent edge, then flat-spread, depressed, funnel-shaped with age, with a bent thin edge, often wavy. The surface is finely velvety, dry, velvety disappears with age. The skin of the cap is orange, yellow-orange, orange-brown, the darkest in the center, sometimes visible in weak concentric zones that disappear with age. The edge is light, pale yellowish, fades to almost white.
Plates : frequent, thick, without plates, but with numerous branches. Strongly descending. Yellow-orange, brighter than caps, turn brown when pressed.
Leg : 3-6 centimeters long and up to 1 cm in diameter, cylindrical or slightly narrowed towards the base, yellow-orange, brighter than the cap, the same color as the plates, sometimes brownish at the base. Can be curved at the base. In young mushrooms, it is whole, with age - hollow.
Flesh : thick in the center of the cap, thin to the edges. Dense, somewhat cotton-like with age, yellow, yellowish, pale orange. The peduncle is dense, tough, reddish.
Smell : weak.
Taste : Described as slightly unpleasant, subtle.
Spore powder: white.
Spores : 5-7.5 x 3-4.5 µm, elliptical, smooth.
Season and distribution
The false chanterelle lives from early August to late October (massively from mid-August to the last decade of September) in coniferous and mixed forests, on soil, litter, in moss, on rotting pine wood and around it, sometimes near anthills, singly and in large groups, quite often, annually.
Distributed throughout the temperate forest zone of Europe and Asia.
Similar species
Common chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius)
with which the false chanterelle crosses in terms of fruiting time and habitat. Easily distinguished by a thin, dense (in a real chanterelle - fleshy and brittle) consistency, brighter orange plates and legs.Red chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis rufa)
differs in the presence of pronounced scales on the cap and a more brown central part of the cap.Edibility
False chanterelle has long been considered a poisonous mushroom. Then it was transferred to the category of "conditionally edible". Now many mycologists tend to consider it rather mildly poisonous than edible, even after pre-boiling for at least 15 minutes. Until doctors and mycologists come to a consensus on this score, we recommend refraining from eating this mushroom for people with hypersensitivity to mushrooms: there is information that the use of a false chanterelle can cause an exacerbation of gastroenteritis.
And the taste of this mushroom is significantly inferior to the real chanterelle: the legs are hard, and the old caps are completely tasteless, cotton-rubbery. Sometimes they have an unpleasant aftertaste from pine wood.
Video about the Chanterelle mushroom false:
The article uses photographs from questions in recognition: Valdis, Sergey, Francisco, Sergey, Andrey.