False chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca): how to identify it and tell it from a chanterelle

How to identify the false chanterelle

The false chanterelle is a small to medium orange mushroom with a finely velvety cap, a shallow funnel shape when mature, and gills that run down the stem and fork over and over. It is soft and a little flimsy in the hand. It grows scattered on needle litter and rotten wood under conifers, and on heathland. The true chanterelle is firmer, more yellow, has blunt ridges instead of gills, and rises from the soil under broadleaf trees as often as conifers.

Field guides disagree about whether it is merely inedible or mildly poisonous, and this page reports both readings. What they agree on is that nobody should eat it, and that its real danger is as a stepping stone: a forager who accepts "orange, gilled, funnel-shaped" as a chanterelle will also accept the poisonous jack-o'-lantern.

Confirm these features

• The underside has thin true gills, not blunt ridges, and they fork repeatedly from the stem to the edge.
• The cap feels dry and finely velvety, and the whole mushroom is soft and bends easily. A chanterelle is firm.
• It grows scattered on needle litter, moss or rotten conifer wood, not in a dense tuft from a stump or a buried root.
• The spore print is white, not cream-yellow and not rusty brown.
• The smell is faint and mushroomy, not apricot and not radish.
• The cap is small, 8 cm at most, and more orange than yellow, often browner in the centre.

Dangerous look-alikes

Jack-o'-lantern (Omphalotus illudens / O. olearius)

Tell apart: The jack-o'-lantern is larger (cap 7 to 20 cm per First Nature), grows in dense tufts from stumps, trunk bases or buried hardwood roots, and has sharp, crowded gills that do not fork (Missouri Department of Conservation). The false chanterelle is small, grows scattered on litter, and its gills fork repeatedly; First Nature uses exactly these two features, forked gills and no tufts, to separate them. Both are orange, so neither colour nor shape helps.

Risk: Poisonous: hours of vomiting, cramps and diarrhea beginning one to three hours after the meal. Full details on the jack-o'-lantern page.

Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius and relatives)

Tell apart: The chanterelle has blunt, forked ridges with cross-veins rather than gills, firm pale flesh, a more yellow colour, a strongly wavy margin and an apricot smell, and it rises from the soil under oak, beech, birch, spruce or pine (First Nature, Wild Food UK). Full comparison: chanterelle vs false chanterelle.

Risk: The chanterelle is the edible one; the risk is that a basket of "chanterelles" with a few false ones in it is a basket you did not check, and the next mistake may be a jack-o'-lantern. See how to identify chanterelles.

Deadly webcap (Cortinarius rubellus)

Tell apart: The deadly webcap shares the same conifer woods and acid ground, and young caps can be orange-brown. But it has a bump on the cap, a cobweb veil on young specimens, gills that turn rusty brown, a rusty reddish-brown spore print and a faint radish smell. A white spore print rules it out. See the deadly webcap page.

Risk: Deadly. Kidney failure days after the meal.

Where and when it grows

The false chanterelle is a decomposer. First Nature places it most often in coniferous woods and on acid heathland; Wild Food UK adds heaths and occasional broadleaf woods; MushroomExpert.com describes it decomposing forest litter and woody debris under conifers, occasionally rising from well-rotted wood. It grows alone, scattered or in loose groups.

In Britain and Ireland it fruits from August to November (First Nature), with Wild Food UK starting the season in July, and it is common. In North America it is widely distributed, fruiting in summer and fall and through the winter in warm regions. It shares its ground and its months with the chanterelle under conifers and with the deadly webcap, so an orange mushroom in a pine or spruce wood in autumn needs its spore print taken before any decision.

What eating it does

The sources do not agree on how harmful the false chanterelle is, so here is what each says. First Nature: it "is not known as a seriously toxic toadstool", but it "should be treated with caution" and "considered as inedible". Wild Food UK: "Not strictly speaking a poisonous mushroom but they can cause alarming symptoms in some people." The Woodland Trust lists it under "not to be confused with" the chanterelle as poisonous. MushroomExpert.com gives no edibility information for any species, by policy.

This page uses "Not edible" as the verdict because that is the most common reading, while noting that one of the four sources calls it poisonous. In practice the two verdicts lead to the same action: leave it. If someone has eaten what they thought were chanterelles and feels unwell, the more important question is whether any of them was a jack-o'-lantern or a webcap; keep a specimen for identification and get help now.

Using an app to check a find

A photo of the underside can show gills rather than ridges, and a good one shows the forking. It cannot show the velvety cap texture, the soft flesh, the spore print or whether the stem joins a tuft below the surface. Mycoscout asks for the cap, the underside, the stem and the habitat, leads with the verdict, shows its confidence and names the chanterelle and the jack-o'-lantern as look-alikes with how to tell them apart. When it is unsure it says so and lists the other possibilities, which for an orange gilled mushroom is exactly the honesty you want. It is not a clearance to eat.

Frequently asked questions