californicus Giant, Oak-loving Golden

The phrase "the golden hills of California" evokes an image of hills of golden grass, rippling in the wind. But to a hunter in our verdant, winter rainy season, it can mean something quite different. Greet a new kind of gold: the giant, California golden chanterelle. This chanterelle, the largest in the world, has impressed and fed local pot hunters for generations. California golden grow from the ground in a symbiotic, mycorrhizal partnership with live oak trees. Their fluted forms stud the sun-dappled oak duff with splashes of gold, and can often be thickly buried beneath it. Chanterelles have an overall golden orange color, shallow gill ridges instead of deep true gills and white inner flesh.

Photo by Debbie Viess Fall and winter is the most productive season for chanterelles, but they can appear through the spring and even in the summer in areas of coastal fog drip. Early rains can stimulate the mushroom mycelia to form numerous primordia, knots of tissue representing chanterelles in miniature. Under the right conditions, these primordia become full blown chanterelles with the addition of time and more water. Here in the Bay Area, look for chanterelles under Coast Live Oak trees. Photo by Hugh Smith California golden chanterelles have one notable toxic lookalike, the “Jack ‘O Lantern Mushroom,” olivascens. This seriously toxic species grows on dead wood (which may be buried in the ground), has deep, true gills with a greenish cast, and orange rather than white inner flesh. aurantiaca, the “False Chanterelle”, is smaller, brownish capped, and has true gills.

Omphalotus olivascens Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca Photo by Bolek Kuznik Photo by Debbie Viess