New chanterelle species found in the Dandenongs! – Updated!

Wandering back from a mushroom hike with John Ford of King Oyster mushrooms I walked near a stand of Oak and Chestnut trees in a low trafficked area in the Dandenong Ranges.

Some Lycoperdon had caught my eye and as I walked around I glimpsed a flash of yellow gold in the undergrowth. Upon investigation I noticed three rows of chanterelles!

The stand of trees was Oak and Chestnut – there was zero native species other than a few Prickly Currant Bushes.

I quickly realised that this might be the find of my mushroom hunting life! These chanterelles were yellow with an olive to brown dimple on the cap, strong chant veins that were slightly lighter in colour and importantly – a hollow stipe/stem with the ‘two leg’ twist of the Winter Chanterelle – Craterellus tubaeformis or Craterellus lutescens. DNA is pending but I got some advice back from two European Mycologists who have an interest in Cantharellus and Craterellus species and both suggested tubaeformis with atypical colouring.

However, the sequence for this mushroom when run through BLASTn placed it somewhere between Cantharellus minor (a US and Japanese specied associated with Oaks) and Cantharellus albus (a Chinese chanterelle species).

The smell was fruity, and in the later photos I have included the orange species which is our local native Cantharellus concinnus the Vic native chanterelle for comparison.

Taste I hear you ask? Excellent!