Summary:
Features include 1) a scarlet to vermilion, finely scaly, dry cap that becomes ochre or yellowish when old, 2) deeply decurrent, orange-yellow gills, and 3) a tall, slender, dry stem that is orange at the top and orange to yellow below. The species name does not agree in gender with the genus because it is a noun rather than an adjective.

Cap:
1-3.5cm across, convex to flattened on disc when young, becoming convex-umbilicate or sometimes disc not depressed, sometimes margin spreading or recurved [upcurved] and the cap then broadly funnel-shaped; color variable, "flame scarlet", "ochraceous orange", or "ochraceous buff", brighter when young, paler when old; dry, silky at first, then finely scurfy or lacerate-squamulose [torn - finely scaly] especially around disc, "margin even, scalloped or wavy", (Hesler), 0.5-4cm across, convex to flattened often becoming depressed in center with spreading to wavy margin; scarlet becoming vermilion, and ocher or yellowish when old; "dry, silky then scurfy-scaly", (Phillips)

Flesh:
thin on disc, thinner at margin; reddish orange or yellow, (Hesler), thin, orange, (Phillips)

Gills:
decurrent, subdistant to distant, broad, often triangular; orange to yellow (usually paler than cap); edges even, (Hesler), "deeply decurrent, distant, broad; pale yellowish becoming deep egg yellow", (Phillips)

Stem:
(2)4-9(12)cm x 0.15-0.4(0.5)cm, equal or narrowing downward slightly, round in cross-section or somewhat flattened, stuffed to hollow, fragile; colored as cap or paler, base whitish or pallid yellowish; dry, bald, (Hesler), 3-9cm x 0.1-0.4cm, stuffed to hollow, fragile; orange at top, cap colored in lower part; dry, smooth, (Phillips)

Veil:
[presumably absent]

Odor:
mild (Hesler, Phillips)

Taste:
mild (Hesler, Phillips)

Microscopic spores:
spores 7-13 x 4-8 microns, specifically in 4-spored forms 7-12 x 4-6 microns and in 2-spored forms 8-13 x 5-8 microns, elliptic to nearly oval, smooth, inamyloid; basidia 2- and 4-spored, (35)45-60 x 6.5-10 microns; pleurocystidia and cheilocystidia not differentiated; gill tissue more or less parallel to slightly interwoven, the cells 57-159 x 7-36 microns and usually filled with yellowish contents; cap cuticle "a turf-like covering of hyphae with their free ends projecting", their terminal elements 66-122 x 8-22 microns, apices rounded, all parts yellowish in iodine, cap trama homogeneous; clamp connections present but rare at times, (Hesler), spores 8.6-10.3 x 5.7-7 microns, elliptic to suboval, smooth, inamyloid, (Phillips), spores 8.1-14.2 x 5.1-7.0 microns, elliptic, not constricted, and not variable in shape, inamyloid; cap cuticle a trichodermium, erect on disc, suberect toward margin, repent on margin, elements often agglutinated in clusters, "terminal cells long and clavate to relatively short and broadly clavate, 29.6-123.2 x 9.8-29.6 microns", (Largent), spores 7.0-12.0(14.0) x 4.5-6.5(7.0) microns (Arnolds)

Spore deposit:
white (Phillips)

Notes:
Collections were examined from WA, ON, QC, AL, FL, MA, ME, MI, NC, NJ, NY, PA, TN, Trinidad, and Venezuela, (Hesler). It has also been found in CA (Largent), and in Germany and the Netherlands, (Arnolds). There are collections from BC at Pacific Forestry Centre and the University of British Columbia. The University of Washington has collections from WA, MI, and NH.

EDIBILITY

unknown (Phillips)

Synonyms and Alternate Names:
Camarophyllus cantharellus (Schwein.) Murrill
Hydrocybe cantharellus (Schwein.) Murrill
Hygrophorus cantharellus (Schwein.) Fr.