Warning: Chanterelle Lookalikes May Cause You to Lose Your Lunch!

I went chanterelle hunting and found about 50 mushrooms on and near an oak tree.

Karen Kaplan

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February 1, 2006

Omphalotus olivascens. © Alan Rockefeller (from mushroomobserver.org)

I was excited, thinking I had found chanterelles, until experienced fungiphile Theodore Lorek informed me they were poisonous Omphalotus olivascens (aka: Jack O' Lantern Mushrooms) which contained muscarine. Muscarine poisoning results in profuse sweating and gastrointestinal upset.

On closer examination, they were a darker color than the yellow chanterelles we had been collecting and they had true gills rather than the shallow, blunt, foldlike gills of chanterelles. Chanterelles also don’t fruit from wood.

According to David Arora, Jack O Lanterns can also glow in the dark! I learned my lesson and know it's good to bring mushrooms to the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz and learn to properly identify the difference between "gourmet" and "poison" before I lose my lunch!

Note from the Editor: This article is not intended as a field guide. Never consume any mushroom that you cannot confidently identify. The following examples show similarities and differences between chanterelles and Jack O' Lanterns, but you should refer to a field guide or an ID expert to confirm your findings. When in doubt, throw it out!

Chanterelle ridges (continuous with the cap's flesh)