Chanterelle
Also check out some of the fungal music on our site, and specifially, "Chantrelle."
This image shows a collection of golden chanterelles that has well-developed hymenium that looks like gills. This is more typical of the chanterelles I find under hardwoods in the midwest, but this fine fungus demonstrates a variable continuum of gill-like shapes from these very fin-like units to the modest wrinkles.
These minor wrinkles will not be mistaken for gills by most chanterelle hunters, but an older collection like the one.
Now here is an older stage of the chanterelle lifestyle, where the hymenium has overgrown and become so wrinkled that the underside of the mushroom looks like it has pores. Chanterelles take 2 to 5 weeks to grow in Montana's cool, dry climate.
This so called blue chanterelle, Polyozellus multiplex, is a fibrous cousin to the white and yellow chanterelles. People often pass it up, as its bear-scat camoflage doesn't invite closer inspection. As food it is mediocre fresh. I understand that when it is dried it assumes a wonderful earthy flavor.
False Chantrelle
This one looks like a chanterelle, but it is actually more closely related to Paxillus. Note the forked gills, which are true gills, unlike a chanterelle. The spores of this
fairly common mushroom are yellow, and it is easier to take a spore print of Hygrophoropsis aurantiacm than a true chanterelle. I've tried this one, and had reports from
others; it did not fare well in a taste test with other more edible fungi. While it may or may not be mildly toxic, the bad flavor should keep you from eating it. One fellow who
tried to sell me a bag of these admitted to eating them after I pointed out his misidentification. Did he like them? I asked.
"Well," he replied,"I did kinda wonder why everybody thought they were so tasty."
Gomphus clavatus
This fine edible relative of the Chanterelle is also called pigs trotters. Yummy name. These cook down well to a brown bacony mass that is delectable.
