Region: cosmopolitan, majority tropical.
Genera: 5; 90 species; Afrocantharellus, Cantharellus, Craterellus, Goossensia, Parastereopsis, Pseudocraterellus, Pterygellus.
TaxonomyGerman mycologist Joseph Schröter chanterelles in 1888, which were thought to be an evolutionary link between primitive Thelephora species with smooth hymenophores and more advanced Agaricus species with gilled hymenophores.
In 1903 French mycologist René Maire emphasized the possession of "stichic" basidia as a characteristic of the
Cantharellaceae and linked the family to the
Hydnaceae and Clavulinaceae. Ernst Albert Gäumann included the genus Hydnum within the
Cantharellaceae.
In 1964 Dutch mycologist Marinus Anton Donk limited the
Cantharellaceae to Cantharellus and Craterellus species, together with some close tropical associates.
Cladistic analysis of DNA sequences confirmed Donk's circumscription of the
Cantharellaceae, though the smaller genera have not yet been sequenced.
Mycology: ectomycorrhizal fungi; fruit bodies are fleshy, mushroom-like or trumpet-like; spore-bearing surfaces are smooth, wrinkled, veined, or gill-like, decurrent,eaning running down the stem; hyphal system being monomitic, consisting of generative hyphae only; basidia are comparatively large and often have more than the standard 4 sterigmata; spores are smooth and white to yellowish or pinkish in deposit; grow on leaf litter in woodland.
Use: many species of Cantharellus, Craterellus, and Goossensia are edible, collected and marketed; in Europe, the commercial species are
Cantharellus cibarius,
Craterellus cornucopioides, and Craterellus tubaeformis which are sold fresh, dried, or canned; various African Cantharellus species are collected in miombo woodlands; in North America, Cantharellus formosus is a widely marketed species.