Horn of plenty Craterellus cornucopioides

Right now

When to look

From September to November. Favourable temperatures: 8 to 17 °C. It usually fruits 5 to 13 days after at least 12 mm of rain.

Where to look

Habitat

Broadleaves (beech, hornbeam), damp mossy soils

Soil

Acidic to chalky soils, damp (pH 5.0 to 7.2)

How to recognise it

Fruit body entirely hollow down to the base, shaped like a horn or a flared trumpet 5 to 10 cm tall, with no clear separation between cap and stem. Inner surface grey-black to bistre brown, finely scaly; outer surface (the fertile part) grey to blackish, smooth or merely marked with lengthwise veins, without gills or thick folds. Flesh very thin (1 to 2 mm), supple and elastic, with a pleasant aromatic smell. Fruits in dense troops in broadleaf litter, often under beech and hornbeam, where it is hard to spot.

Dangerous look-alikes

• Elfin saddle

  Helvella lacunosa
  poisonous

  Same grey-black colours, and it sometimes grows mixed in with the horns of plenty, but it is not a horn: the cap is a lumpy saddle with two or three lobes folded down and fused in places to the top of the stem, never an open funnel hollow down to the base. The stem, thick and dark grey, is deeply ribbed and hollowed with honeycomb-like pockets, whereas that of the horn of plenty is smooth and runs without a break into the horn. Poisonous raw or undercooked.

Foraging tips

Look-alikes are few: the species that truly resemble it are other Craterellus (ashen chanterelle, sinuous chanterelle), also edible — the main risk is walking past it. The only look-alike to discard is the elfin saddle, poisonous raw or undercooked, which sometimes grows in the same carpets and shares their dark colour: check that each piece is indeed a smooth horn, hollow in one piece, and not a lumpy saddle on a ribbed stem. Split the horns to shake out needles, slugs and soil; the species dries very well and can be ground into an aromatic powder.

Model reliability

Reliability for this species: moderate.

Also in season

• Chanterelle
• Cep (penny bun)
• Parasol mushroom
• Field mushroom
• Winter chanterelle
• Hedgehog mushroom

Where mushrooms are fruiting this week · All species