| Name: | Cantharellus formosus. Pacific Golden Chanterelle. |
| Family: | Cantharellacea. |
| Spore Color: | Creamy or pale yellowish. |
| Size, Smell, Taste: | Stipe 4 to 12 cm long, 1 to 2.5 cm thick. Odor, indistinct or fruity-fragrant. Taste, indistinct. |
| Niche (substrate): | Usually in small groups or scattered in large arcs and troops in moss and duff of conifer forests. First fruiting in late summer on the Far North Coast, continuing into winter. Common under Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir, and Western Hemlock. |
| Edibility: | Edible and good. |
| Distinguishing features: | Tall, straight, slender stipe, decurrent gills, yellow to brownish ocher cap, growth under conifers. C. cascadensis has brighter yellow cap, whitish gills, and a short, chunky, club-shaped stipe. C. Roseocanus has brighter orange gills, a pinkish orange cap, and a shorter, chunkier stature. C. Californicus is much larger and chunkier and grows under oaks. Craterellus tubaeformis can look similar but has thin fleshed hollow stipe with a cartilagenous texture. C. Formosus is occasionally confused with Croogomphus tomentosis which has a velvety-shaggy cap margin and olive-blackish spores. The false chanterelle Hygroporopsis aurantiaca has much thinner flesh and very crowded narrow gills that fork repeatedly. |