Summary:
{See also Orange Chanterelles Table.} Also listed in Veined category. Features of Cantharellus formosus include yellowish orange firm fleshy lobed cap, decurrent vein-like ridges on spore-bearing surface that is orangish to orangish yellow with a pinkish tinge, yellowish orange stem, and yellowish white spore deposit.

Cap:
2-14cm across, fleshy; brightly colored dull orange yellow to orange, under wet conditions brilliant to soft orange yellow (apricot to orange or saffron (Rayner), "antimony yellow" or "deep chrome" (Ridgway)), "with a slightly duskier center and largely obscured overlying fuscous layer", but in strong shade salmon to rosy buff-colored, with yellow pigment apparently not fully developed, and upon partial drying or in dry conditions "the subhygrophanous fuscous layer becoming more conspicuous", appearing either as an even dusky coating and then the surface medium orange yellow to light yellow brown (or "yellow ocher" or "warm buff" (Ridgway)), or "breaking up into conspicuous appressed darker patches in scales or bands on a brighter background", bruising from handling "inconspicuous to conspicuous, inducing a slow yellowing which changes to ochraceous", (Redhead), 4-8cm wide, convex at first, depressed to concave in age; light grayish yellowish brown on disc, pale orange to yellowish white on the margin, bruising dark orange yellow; dry, subtomentose, irregularly rugose (wrinkled), (Tylutki), often big, up to 14cm across, dull orange to brown-orange cap; "frequently with small closely adhering, slightly darker scales particularly visible in dry weather", (Pilz), up to 20cm (D. Winkler, pers. comm.)

Flesh:
whitish to paler than "ivory yellow", except immediately below pigmented surfaces, (Redhead), firm, thick, up to 0.4-0.8cm at stem; yellowish white, (Tylutki), firm, fibrous, when bruised at first turning yellow slowly, eventually darkening to dull ocher, (Pilz)

Gills:
decurrent, consisting of radiating well developed folds (up to 0.2cm deep) tending to fork between the margins, depending on growth conditions either crowded (0.1cm apart), or subdistant (0.2cm apart) and "varying from scarcely anastomosing to distinctly intervenose with ladder-like branches, occasionally developing cracks when growth continues afterwards in dry weather"; pale orange yellow (Kelly) to saffron (Rayner) or "pale pinkish cinnamon" to "capucine buff" (Ridgway) in some areas when moist, to salmon (Rayner) in drier forms or even yellow white to buff on heavily shaded specimens, bruising yellow then ochraceous if fresh and humid, (Redhead); decurrent, forming well-developed radiating vein-like ridges or folds, forked, irregularly dichotomous; yellowish white to pale orange yellow with slight pale yellowish pink tint, especially toward margin; interveined in places, (Tylutki), deeply ridged, running from cap edge well down the stem; pale orange yellow and often with a pink cast, (Pilz)

Stem:
4-8cm x 0.4-2.2cm, equal or narrowing downward, sometimes compressed, sheathed at top by decurrent smooth spore bearing surface extending beyond folds, with sheath occasionally fragmenting into small patches or bands; colored as or slightly paler than cap, "maize yellow" or "buff yellow" to "warm buff" (Ridgway), and usually not as dusky, bruising yellow then ochraceous (Kelly), "Capucine yellow" or slightly paler than "buckthorn brown" (Ridgway); nearly bald, more conspicuously fibrillose after handling, (Redhead), up to 5cm long and 0.8-1.6cm wide, cylindric; yellowish white to pale orange yellow, bruising dark orange yellow; furfuraceous to pruinose, (Tylutki), dull orange to brown-orange, (Pilz)

Odor:
none or fragrant of apricots, (Tylutki), faint, fruity, apricot-like, more noticeable in drier fresh collections, (Pilz)

Taste:
mild to slightly peppery, (Tylutki), mildly peppery when raw (Pilz)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7.2-9.2 x 4.7-6.1 microns, average 8.1 x 5.3 microns, length / width 1.47-1.6, broadly oval to elliptic or broadly cylindric in face view, slightly inequilateral to broadly cylindrical in side view, smooth, inamyloid, colorless, thin-walled; basidia 4-(5)-6-spored, 86-120 x 8-11.6 microns, clavate, sterigmata large, 5-7 microns long, incurved, with the 5th and 6th further from the apex; hymenial cystidia absent; cap cuticle initially a radially inclining turf of free hyphal ends with many long bluntly tipped hyphal ends, soon collapsing into radially matted, thin, fuscous layer, hyphae and hyphal ends 4-9 microns wide, with fuscous contents and smooth walls up to 0.8 microns thick; clamp connections abundant in all tissues, (Redhead), spores 7-10 x 5.5-6.5 microns, elliptic, smooth; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia absent, (Tylutki)

Spore deposit:
yellowish white (Redhead), pale yellow (Tylutki)

Notes:
C. formosus is found in BC, WA, OR, and northwestern CA, and has been reported from ID by Andrew Parker, pers. comm.

EDIBILITY

idiosyncratic allergic-type reactions to chanterelles have been reported to North American Mycological Association''s poison registry (Benjamin), widely consumed however and considered choice (Pilz)