Gray chanterelle (Cantharellus cinereus)
Systematics:- Department: Basidiomycota (Basidiomycetes)
- Subdivision: Agaricomycotina (Agaricomycetes)
- Class: Agaricomycetes (Agaricomycetes)
- Subclass: Incertae sedis (undefined)
- Order: Cantharellales (Chanterelle (Cantarella))
- Family: Cantharellaceae (Chanterelle)
- Genus: Cantharellus (Chanterelle)
- Species: Cantharellus cinereus (Gray chanterelle)
Synonyms:
Sinuous funnel
- Craterellus sinuosus
Gray chanterelle (Craterellus sinuosus)
Hat:
Funnel-shaped, with uneven wavy edges, 3-6 cm in diameter. The inner surface is smooth, gray-brown; the outer one is covered with lighter folds resembling plates. The pulp is thin, rubbery-fibrous, without a definite smell and taste.
Spore-bearing layer:
Fold, sinewy-lamellar, light, gray-ash, often with a light bloom.
Spore powder:
Whitish.
Leg:
Smoothly turning into a hat, widened in the upper part, height 3-5 cm, thickness up to 0.5 cm. Color gray, ashy, gray-brown.
Spread:
Chanterelle is sometimes found in deciduous and mixed forests from late July to early October. It often grows in large bunches.
Similar species:
The gray chanterelle (almost not) looks like a horn-shaped funnel (Craterellus cornucopiodes), which lacks plate-like folds (the hymenophore is actually smooth).
Edibility:
Edible , but actually tasteless mushroom (as well as the traditional yellow chanterelle - Cantharellus cibarius).
Remarks
Still, it is clear why the gray relatives of the chanterelle, despite their relatively wide distribution, are of little interest to the general public. They are very much alien. The eye has nothing to catch on - there are no analogues. The horn-shaped funnel (Craterellus cornucopiodes) I was looking specifically for for several years, although I almost walked on it. The first time I saw a gray fox , I walked by - then, suspecting something was wrong, I returned, saw it a second time, and again almost passed by. It's somehow incomprehensible. As if a gypsy with a bear stepped off the ramp of a government plane instead of Putin. It's hard to think about such things.