Mexico. Veracruz: Municipality of Zentla, around town of Zentla, 850 m a.s.l., gregarious on ground, under Quercus oleoides Schltdl. & Cham., 5 July 2012, Bandala 4505 (XAL).

Differing from other related yellow Cantharellus species (subgenus Cantharellus) by the smooth hymenophore, often rugulose or with low, close, fine, irregular veins, pinkish-yellow, ellipsoid basidiospores 7–9 (–10.5) × (4.5–) 5–6.5 µm [Q–= 1.36–1.65], basidia (43–) 49–96 (–104) × 5–12 µm, pileipellis terminal hyphae 22–60 (–73) × 4–5.5 µm, subcylindrical, rarely subventricose, straight to moderately flexuous, wall ≤ 1 µm thick.

Figure 2. 

Basidiomes of Cantharellus species a, b C. veraecrucis (a Bandala 4505, holotype b Herrera 142) c, d C. parvoflavus (c Montoya 5423, holotype d Herrera 229) e, f C. tabernensis (e Herrera 120 f Herrera 131). Scale bars: 10 mm.

nLSU MT371344; tef-1α MT449712.

Referring to the locality of origin, in the State of Veracruz, Mexico.

Pileus 20–80 (–100) mm diam, convex to plane convex, then more or less applanate and centrally depressed, becoming concave and finally broadly infundibuliform; involute margin when young, later incurved and becoming recurved or plane or uplifted in old specimens, not striate, at first entire, becoming variably lobed and undulate; surface dry, when young with appressed fibrils forming a moderately fine, squamulose surface especially at the center, smooth to glabrescent with age, yellow, light yellow (2.5Y 8/3, 7/12, 10YR 4–5/2), pale orange to bright yellow-orange (3A7–8, 4A4–8, 5A4–8, 2.5Y 7/8–8/8, 10YR 6/8, 7/6–8, 8/8) and even brownish-orange (5B7), at times light gray (10YR 7/1–2, 7.5YR 7/1, 4B2) at the center, orange-buff (5B5), salmon-orange to dirty peach-orange (6A6, 6B3, 6B5) or even brown (6E5). Hymenophore decurrent, smooth overall, often rugulose or with low, close, simple or forked, fine, irregular veins; paler than the pileus, light rose (10YR 8/2–3;7.5YR 7/3–4, 8/4, 5A2–4) when young although with age still preserving pinkish tints on a pale yellow (4A2–3), light yellow (10YR 8/3–4, 8/6, 2.5Y 8/4), light orange (6A3–4), or even egg yellow (4A8) ground. Stipe 10–75 × 6–21 mm, equal, tapering gradually downwards, somewhat sinuous or curved, central, occasionally somewhat eccentric, solid, glabrous to subtomentose, at times with age the surface becomes detached in scattered fibrils concolorous with hymenophore, whitish with yellow tinges (4A3–4), pale to bright yellow (4A6–8), orange (5A4), to orange-brown tinges (4A8, 4B7–8, 5B7) especially towards the base, often staining ochraceous or rusty orange color when handle; base in some specimens villous to finely villous under lens. Context fleshy, fibrous in stipe, concolorous with pileus or paler, yellowish-buff, odor agreeable fruity, faintly to peach or somewhat recalling butter; taste mild, fruity agreeable, finally somewhat bitter. KOH 3% negative, only somewhat orange on pileus, NH₄OH 10% negative.

Figure 3. 

Cantharellus veraecrucis (Bandala 4505, holotype) a basidiospores b terminal elements of the pileipellis c basidia d longitudinal section of pileipellis. Scale bars: 5 μm (a); 10 μm (b, c); 25 μm (d).

Basidiospores 7–9 (–10.5) × (4.5–) 5–6.5 µm [X– = 7.8–8.9 × 5.3–6.1 µm, Q– = 1.36–1.65 (n = 12)], ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, inamyloid. Basidia (43–) 49–96 (–104) × 5–12 µm, narrowly clavate to subcylindrical, with 2–5 sterigmata, thin-walled, hyaline, subhymenium composed of cylindrical hyphae 3–5 µm diam. Cystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis composed of cylindrical hyphae 4–6 µm diam., intermingled in a compact arrangement, hyaline, yellowish colored in group; terminal hyphae 22–60 (–73) × 4–5.5 µm, subcylindrical, rarely subventricose, scattered, straight to moderately flexuous, smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, thick-walled (<1 µm thick). Pileus trama composed of cylindrical hyphae, 4–5 µm diam, slightly thick-walled (<1 µm thick), hyaline, some with weakly refringent contents. Hymenophoral trama composed of hyphae 4–5 µm diam, thin-walled, some with weakly refringent contents. Clamp connections present in all tissues.

Solitary to gregarious, on soil, in tropical oak forest, in the studied sites it is recorded frequently in monodominant stands of Quercus oleoides, being less frequent in monodominant stands of Q. glaucescens Bonpl. or Q. sapotifolia Liebm.; fruiting in June-October at the coastal plain of central Veracruz State, east coast of Mexico.

Mexico. Veracruz, Municipality of Zentla, Road Puentecilla-La Piña, 837 m a.s.l., 2 Jul 2009, Ramos 192, 193, 194; 21 Jun 2012, Herrera 23, 24, 28; 5 Jul 2012, Corona 649, 650, 653; 31 Jul 2012, Montoya 4887; 6 Nov 2013, Herrera 68. Around town of Zentla, 850 m a.s.l., 26 Jun 2013, Herrera 58, 59; 15 Jun 2016, Herrera 153, 154; 23 Jun 2016, Herrera 156; 6 Jul 2016, Herrera 175, 181, 183; 12 Jul 2016, Caro 71, Herrera 185, 186, 188, 190; 10 Aug 2016, Herrera 193; 5 Oct 2016, Melecio 16; 23 Oct 2018, Herrera 159; 12 Jul 2017, Montoya 5347; 21 Sep 2017, Garay 394, Garrido 88, 89; 20 Jun 2018, Herrera 232. Municipality of Alto Lucero, NE Mesa de Venticuatro, 450–500 m a.s.l., 17 Sep 2015, Herrera 140; 4 Sep 2018, Herrera 244. Jaguarundi Park, Coatzacoalcos 29 Sep 2015, Herrera 142, 143, 144, 145 (all at XAL).

Cantharellus veraecrucis is distinguished by the basidiome colors, hymenophore smooth (or at times discontinuously rugulose) with pinkish tinges, and pileus surface with appressed fibrils. In some stage of development, it superficially might look like C. flavolateritius; this latter, however, according to Buyck et al. (2016a) exhibits bright yellow colors on pileus, the hymenophore is composed of radially oriented, low anastomosing veins,“… locally almost smooth…”, paler stipe (yellow to off-white), narrowly ellipsoid, somewhat phaseoliform basidiospores (7.1–) 7.2–7.88–8.5 (–10.0) × (4.0–) 4.2– 4.71–5.2 (–5.8) μm, Q = (1.4–) 1.5–1.69–1.8 (–2.1) and pileipellis terminal hyphae often rather short, clavulate or apically slightly inflated, rarely ellipsoid, mostly 20–50 (–70) μm long, sometimes more or less wavy-undulate in outline.

In our phylogenetic analysis, C. veraecrucis is related also with C. lateritius. This latter species exhibits pale to deep yellow or even apricot orange (Buyck et al. 2011) or bright orange or slightly pinkish orange colors (Petersen 1979). Buyck et al. (2011) with their field experience also cited that C. lateritius “… has an often excentrical, sometimes laterally compressed, short to long, more or less yellow stipe that can remain white at the base but is concolorous with the cap higher up, and it has an almost smooth to clearly veined often slightly pinkish tinted hymenophore (the senior author has never seen absolutely smooth specimens)...”. Based on our revision of the epitype of C. lateritius (Buyck 07.025 kept at PC, designated by Buyck and Hofstetter 2011), it microscopically differs from C. veraecrucis by the basidiospores shape (ellipsoid to slightly phaseoliform) and the terminal hyphae of the pileipellis, which are (19–) 21–60 (–70) × 5–11 µm, cylindrical to subclavate, tending to be wider than those of C. veraecrucis (Fig. 7).

The Asian Cantharellus hiananensis N.K. Zeng, Zhi Q. Liang & S. Jiang, appears related also to C. veraecrucis, but according to data by An et al. (2017), it differs from the Mexican species by its smaller basidiome size (pileus 25–55 mm diam., stipe 30–55 × 8–10 mm), paler hymenophore (cream to yellowish white), stipe usually hollow covered with tiny, yellow to pale yellowish brown scales, smaller, subcylindrical basidiospores [6–7.09–8 (–9) × (4–) 4.5–4.84–5 (–5.5) µm], and smaller basidia (50–70 × 7–10 µm), (4–) 5 (–6) -spored and pileipellis terminal hyphae 23–82 × 3–8 mm, narrowly clavate or subcylindrical, sometimes subfusiform, with obtuse apex.

Cantharellus veraecrucis represents a wild edible mushroom that is harvested for consumption and commercialization during the rainy season, in the study site and surroundings; it is known as “Oak mushroom”. After our systematic multiyear sampling of basidiomes in the forests studied, we could observe that C. veraecrucis is a frequent chanterelle, and shares the same habit preferences as C. violaceovinosus, recently described from the same region (Herrera et al. 2018).

Mexico. Veracruz: Municipality of Alto Lucero, NE Mesa de Venticuatro, 450–500 m a.s.l. gregarious, on ground, under Quercus oleoides Schltdl. & Cham., 2 Oct 2017, Montoya 5423 (XAL).

Differing from other related Cantharellus species (subgenus Parvocantharellus) by the pileus surface with appressed fibrils at center, broadly ellipsoid basidiospores 6–9 (–9.5) × 4.5–5 µm [Q–= 1.52–1.57 (n=3)], pileipellis terminal hyphae (23–) 25–75 (–80) µm × (3.5–) 4–8 µm, mostly cylindrical, often subclaviform, subventricose or somewhat narrowly utriform.

nLSU MT371337; tef-1α MT449706.

Referring to a small, yellow chanterelle; from parvus (Lat.): small and flavus (Lat.): yellow

Pileus 6–26 mm diam, subhemispheric in young, becoming convex to plane convex and centrally depressed, some finally irregularly infundibuliform; margin incurved when young, becoming inflexed to somewhat straight, undulate or irregular or more or less crenate, not or obscurely translucid striate; surface dry, with appressed fibrils at center when young, glabrous at remaining areas, with waxy appearance, bright yellow-orange (5A5–A8) with tiny white to light yellow scales in the center when young, paler at edge when young. Hymenophore decurrent or shortly decurrent, with gill-like folds up to 2 mm deep, subdistant to more frequently distant, at times forked, moderately thick with margin entire or often irregular or eroded, frequently intervenose, some specimens (especially towards the stipe) with irregular low and sinuous veins, often with lower irregular anastomosis among the folds, in some specimens the anastomosis occur practically in the whole hymenophore, while in others only at some areas, especially at pileus margin, with some short lamellulae-like folds, concolorous with the pileus. Stipe (10–) 15–42 × 2–6 mm, broadened towards the apex, somewhat fused, compressed at times or furrowed, solid but soon fistulous to hollow, glabrous, concolorous with pileus. Context fleshy, concolorous with pileus or somewhat paler, with waxy appearance, odor mild, agreeable; taste mild, agreeable.

Basidiospores 6–9 (–9.5) × 4.5–5 µm [X– = 7.6–7.8 × 4.9–5 µm, Q– = 1.52–1.57 (n = 3)], broadly ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, inamyloid, with granular contents or refractive droplets. Basidia 50–83 (–89) × (6–) 7–10 µm, narrowly clavate to subcylindrical, with 2–5 sterigmata, thin-walled, hyaline; subhymenium composed of cylindrical hyphae 4–6 µm diam. Cystidia absent. Pileipellis composed of intermingled hyphae of 4–7 µm diam, cylindrical, hyaline, yellowish in group, terminal hyphae (23–) 25– 75 (–80) × (3.5–) 4–8 µm, mostly cylindrical, often subclaviform, subventricose or somewhat narrowly utriform, moderately straight to flexuous, inamyloid, thick-walled (<1 µm thick), smooth, hyaline. Pileus trama composed of cylindrical to inflated hyphae, 4–7 µm diam, slightly thick-walled (<1 µm thick), hyaline, some with weakly refringent contents. Hymenophoral trama composed of hyphae 4–5 µm diam, thin-walled, some with weakly refringent contents. Clamp connections present in all tissues.

Figure 4. 

Cantharellus parvoflavus (Montoya 5423, holotype) a basidiospores b Terminal elements of the pileipellis c basidia d longitudinal section of pileipellis. Scale bars: 5 μm (a); 10 μm (b, c); 25 μm (d).

Solitary to gregarious, rare in the study area, on soil, in tropical oak forest, under Quercus oleoides, September-October, known in the coastal plain of central Veracruz State, east coast of Mexico.

Mexico. Veracruz, Municipality of Alto Lucero, NE Mesa de Venticuatro, 392–433 m a.s.l., 27 Sep 2016, Herrera 204; 20 Oct 2017, Herrera 229 (all at XAL).

The phylogenetic analysis supports (with high values of bootstrap and Bayesian posterior probabilities 100/1) the distinction of Cantharellus parvoflavus as a new species, sister to C. appalachiensis from USA. This latter species, besides their basidiomes being somewhat larger [pileus 10–50 mm/stipe 15–75 × 3–10 (–13) mm], are not distinctly yellow, only dingy yellow, usually dull brown, pale or yellowish-brown at margin, darker to brown on disc (Petersen and Ryvarden 1971; Bigelow 1978). Moreover, C. appalachiensis has wider broadly-ellipsoid basidiospores [(6.6–) 7.4–8.2 (–8.9) × (4.4–) 4.8–5.6 (–5.9) µm or (6–) 7.5–9 (–10.5) × (4–) 4.5–5.5 (–6) µm] and wider pileipellis hyphae (3–14.5 µm diam. or 9–14 µm diam.) (Petersen and Ryvarden 1971; Bigelow 1978).

Cantharellus parvoflavus is similar to yellow forms of C. minor, because they have a hygrophoroid appearance, but this latter is usually bright yellow orange to orange, fading to pale orange-buff or pale orange, with glabrous pileus surface, bigger, ellipsoid, slightly phaseoliform basidiospores (6–) 7.5–10 (–11.5) × (4–) 4.5–6 (–6.5) µm and pileipellis terminal elements subcylindrical to subventricose (Bigelow 1978; Buyck et al. 2010). Cantharellus romagnesianus is close to C. parvoflavus but it develops grey-brown colors in the pileus, its hymenophore has forked veins, often spaced, larger basidiospores [(8–) 9–11.5 (–12.5) × 4–6 (–6.5), Q = 1.71–2.28] and with different shape (Olariaga et al. 2017).

Pileus 10–30 mm diam, hemispheric to convex, becoming broadly conical to plane convex and faintly depressed in the disc, margin incurved when young, somewhat inflexed to straight with age or somewhat reflexed, not striate, not or faintly undulate or crenulate; hygrophanous, with dull appearance, some with greyish appressed fibrils at center and smooth at the margin when young, smooth to glabrescent with age; light yellow (2.5Y 8/6–8/8, 4A5). Hymenophore decurrent or shortly decurrent, with gills up to 3 mm deep, subdistant to more frequently distant, continuous, or forked at different levels, moderately thick; margin entire, at times with irregular anastomosis among folds, with short lamellulae-like folds; yellow to egg yellow (10YR 8/8) brighter than the pileus. Stipe (15–) 19–40 × 2–6 mm, central or at times slightly eccentric, equal, occasionally somewhat applanate, at times slightly fused or broader at base, solid to hollow, often furrowed especially below, hygrophanous, surface smooth, concolorous with the pileus; mycelium whitish to pale yellowish. Context 1–3 mm thick cream color to yellowish, odor mild, agreeable; taste mild, agreeable.

Basidiospores 6.5–8.5 × 4.5–5 µm [X– = 7.32–7.34 × 4.8–4.9 µm, X– = 1.49–1.52, (n = 2)], ellipsoid, smooth, thin-walled, hyaline, inamyloid, with granular contents or refractive droplets. Basidia (53–) 56–87 (–99) × 6–10 µm, narrowly clavate to subcylindrical, with 2–4 sterigmata, thin-walled, hyaline; subhymenium composed of cylindrical hyphae 3–5 µm diam. Cystidia absent. Pileipellis a cutis composed of hyphae 5–8 µm diam, intermingled in a compact arrangement, cylindrical, hyaline, inamyloid, with terminal hyphae cylindrical to somewhat subclavate, 62–75 × 6–10 µm, slightly thick-walled (<1 µm thick), smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, usually abundant. Pileus trama composed of cylindrical hyphae, 3–8 µm diam, slightly thick-walled (<1 µm thick), hyaline. Hymenophoral trama composed of hyphae 3–6 µm diam, thin-walled. Clamp connections present in all tissues.

Figure 5. 

Cantharellus tabernensis (Herrera 131) a basidiospores b basidia c Terminal elements of the pileipellis d longitudinal section of pileipellis. Scale bars: 5 μm (a); 10 μm (b, c); 25 μm (d).

Solitary to gregarious, rare in the study area, on soil, in tropical oak forest, under Quercus oleoides and Q. sapotifolia, fruiting in June at the coastal plain of central Veracruz State, east coast of Mexico.

Mexico. Veracruz, Municipality of Zentla, Road Puentecilla-La Piña, 837 m a.s.l.,11 Jun 2015, Herrera 120, 121;10 Sep 2015, Herrera 131 (all at XAL).

In our phylogeny Mexican sequences of specimens Herrera 120 and 121 clustered (Fig. 1) with high values of Bootstrap and Bayesian posterior probabilities (96/0.99) with a sequence of the type specimen of Cantharellus tabernensis from U.S.A., produced by Buyck et al. (2014). The morphological description provided above includes both mentioned specimens, and in fact, in the most relevant characters, those specimens agree with the species. It should be mentioned, however, that the following features recorded in the description provided by Feibelman et al. (1996) were not observed in the Mexican material: pileus mat felted overall, often umbilicate, sometimes perforated, basidia 4–5–6 -spored and dark plasmatic pigment confined to clavate terminal cells of the surface hyphae at disc.

The record presented here of C. tabernensis, in its turn provides additional information on the species distribution. It is known from the mixed pine and hardwood forests, usually near Pinus elliotii Engelm., at the Gulf coastal plain in Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana states in USA (Feibelman et al. 1996), and now C. tabernensis is known also in the tropical Quercus forest from Veracruz, in the coastal plain of Veracruz state in the Gulf of Mexico.

Mexico. Veracruz, Orizaba. Botteri 6 [ex herb. M.J. Berkeley] KM 173247 (K).

nLSU MT371345.

From furcatus (Lat.): forked, referring to a bifurcation developed in the basidiome.

Presumably having been separated from the entire collection, the holotype specimen consists of a single unipileate basidiome but the diagnostic feature mentioned by Berkeley (1867) “… stem divided above into numerous pilei…”, a feature practically not observed in close related species (C. flavolateritius, C. lateritius, C. veraecrucis) is present, as noted and depicted by Burt (1914), in the isotype collection at Farlow Herbarium (https://huh.harvard.edu/pages/farlow-herbarium-fh), and it is well-depicted and described for collections from SE USA studied by Petersen (1979). The particularity of producing multipileate basidiomes and/or with fused stipes, in combination with the smooth pileus surface, pileus and hymenophore predominantly orange colored (aurantiacus in the diagnosis) hymenophore rugulose, irregularly forking and anastomosing, rarely smooth, with yellow stipe and lacking pinkish shades (Petersen 1979), are the distinctive macroscopic features of C. furcatus.

The holotype specimen Botteri 6 (at K) of Cr. confluens was preserved in such a poor condition that it does not allow a proper rehydration of the tissues. The microscopic features recovered were: basidiospores of 7.5–8.5 × 5–6 µm (X– = 7.8 × 5.3 µm), Q– = 1.46, broadly ellipsoid to ellipsoid, some subglobose, somewhat flattened adaxially, smooth, hyaline, thin-walled, inamyloid. Pileipellis a cutis composed of cylindrical hyphae 5–7 µm diam, compactly arranged, hyaline, yellowish colored in group; terminal hyphae 36–57 × 8–12 µm, clavate to broadly clavate, scattered, smooth, hyaline, inamyloid, thin to thick-walled (<1 µm thick). Clamp connections present (Fig. 6). In the holotype Petersen (1979) registered basidiospores of 6.7–8.9 × 4.8–5.9 µm, Q– = 1.29–1.54 and of 7–10 × 5–6.3 µm, while in the isotype collection there is an annotation made in 1980 by Dr. H.E. Bigelow, describing basidiospores: 8–10 × 5.5–6.5 µm, ellipsoid or broadly ellipsoid or subglobose, smooth, inamyloid, basidia mostly collapsed, ± 41–52 × 6–7.5 µm, pileus with hyphae 4–10 µm diam, clamped, pigment apparently intracellular (https://huh.harvard.edu/pages/farlow-herbarium-fh).

Figure 6. 

Cantharellus furcatus (Botteri 6, holotype of Craterellus confluens) a basidiospores b terminal elements of the pileipellis. Scale bars: 5 μm (a); 10 μm (b).

Figure 7. 

Terminal elements of the pileipellis of Cantharellus species a, b C. lateritius (a Buyck 05.058 b Buyck 07.025 epitype) c C. veraecrucis (Bandala 4505, holotype). Scale bar: 10 μm.