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False Chanterelle vs Pacific Golden Chanterelle

Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca and Cantharellus formosus are confused for one another often enough to be worth putting next to each other.

Hygrophoropsis aurantiacaFalse ChanterelleInedible / unclear

The mushroom most people’s first chanterelle turns out to be. Harmless to many and upsetting to some, and it carries true gills rather than a chanterelle’s blunt folds.

Cantharellus formosusPacific Golden ChanterelleEdible

Oregon’s state mushroom and the backbone of the North American chanterelle trade, picked by the tonne from the same coastal forests every autumn.

Side by side

Hygrophoropsis aurantiacaCantharellus formosus
In this gameInedible / unclearEdible

This comparison cannot make a mushroom safe to eat. It sets out the few characteristics this game records, in general terms, for two species that vary by region, age and growing conditions. Real specimens overlap in ways no table and no photograph can separate, and the deadly one here is deadly in a single meal. Ask a qualified local expert, every time.

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Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca is also confused with Golden Chanterelle and Pale Chanterelle.

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