Turbinellus floccosus — Scaly chanterelle, woolly chanterelle, woolly false chanterelle

Tricholoma murrillianum

Scaly chanterelle2 photograph by Ludovic Le Renard

Suspect: May cause stomach upsets
 

Instead of gills: Decurrent, crinkly, shallow ridges
Spore print: Ochre

Odour: Indistinct.
Cap: 5–15 cm in diameter, vase-like with a deep central depression, orange. It starts out as a dark brown cylinder with a yellow top. Distinctive orange to dark orange scales develop in concentric rings on the cap.
Gills: Instead of thin gills, scaly chanterelles have decurrent shallow, irregular wrinkled ridges, pale yellow to cream.
Stems: 8–16 cm long x 3.5–5 cm wide, vase-shaped, cream-coloured and often with yellow-orange tinges.
Ring or veil: None.
Cup: None.
Spores: 11–20 x 6–10 µm, with broad low warts.
Habitat: Solitary or in clusters, often in arcs in mixed coniferous forests. Ectomycorrhizal.
Geographical Distribution: In BC known from the coastal area, northwards into coastal Alaska, and southwards in the Cascades, and along the coast to central California. Collections reported from central or eastern North America likely represent different, unnamed species based on their genetic divergence4. The closely related Gomphus bonarii and Turbinellus kauffmanii occur in western North America. Gomphus bonarii grows in clusters at high altitudes, and has paler pinkish fruitbodies. Turbinellus kauffmanii has big pale-brown fruitbodies with very coarse scales.
Remarks: Formerly known as Gomphus floccosus.

The scaly chanterelle should not be confused with the highly sought-after, edible chanterelle (Cantharellus) species. Chanterelles have regular ridge-like veins on their lower surfaces and are never as vase-like as the scaly chanterelle.

All of the scaly chanterelles of the Pacific northwest and BC are suspect, as they cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea in some people. DNA barcode sequence differences suggest that the Pacific northwest/BC species differs from the species called "Turbinellus floccosus" from central Mexico and India5. The Mexican6 and the Indian7 species are considered good edibles.

Toxins: possibly α-tetradecylcitric acid (norcaperatic acid)8.

Symptoms: Time of onset varies and can be as late as 8–14 hours after consumption.

Treatment: Contact your regional Poison Control Centre if you or someone you know is ill after eating wild mushrooms. Poison Centres provide free, expert medical advice 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If possible, save the mushrooms or some of the leftover food containing the mushrooms to help confirm identification.

Poison Control:
British Columbia: 604-682-5050 or 1-800-567-8911.
United States (WA, OR, ID): 1-800-222-1222.

1
MyCoPortal. Mycology Collections Portal, <http://mycoportal.org/portal/collections/harvestparams.php> accessed March 2018.
2
Specimen Turbinellus floccosus UBC F32080, GenBank #MF955206.
3
Siegel, N. & Schwarz, C. Mushrooms of the Redwood Coast. A Comprehensive Guide to the Fungi of Coastal Northern California. Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California (2016).
4
Giachini, A. J., Hosaka, K., Nouhra, E., Spatafora, J. & Trappe, J. M. Phylogenetic relationships of the Gomphales based on nuc-25S-rDNA, mit-12S-rDNA, and mit-atp6-DNA combined sequences. Fungal Biology 114, 224-234, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funbio.2010.01.002 (2010).
5
Benson, D. A., Karsch-Mizrachi, I., Lipman, D. J., Ostell, J. & Wheeler, D. L. GenBank. Nucleic Acids Res. 33, D34-D38, doi:10.1093/nar/gki063 (2005).
6
Lamus, V. et al. Mycorrhizal synthesis of the edible mushroom Turbinellus floccosus with Abies religiosa from central Mexico. Mycoscience 56, 622-626, doi:10.1016/j.myc.2015.07.001 (2015).
7
Khaund, P. & Joshi, S. R. DNA barcoding of wild edible mushrooms consumed by the ethnic tribes of India. Gene 550, 123-130, doi:10.1016/j.gene.2014.08.027 (2014).
8
Carrano, R. A. & Malone, M. H. Pharmacologic study of norcaperatic and agaricic acids. J. Pharm. Sci. 56, 1611-1614, doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jps.2600561216 (1967).