Black Trompette Aka Trumpet of death (Craterellus Cornucopioides) Identification

Black Trompette / Summer / Autumn / Edible

Classiccardinal, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Aporia.j, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Edatoscana, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Scientific name

Craterellus Cornucopioides

Family

Cantharellaceae

Habitat

Grows mainly with Beech and oak trees, on calcareous soils, preferring mossy patches. It occurs from August to November, more often favouring the cooler late autumn months.

Description

These mushrooms are incredibly hard to spot amongst the leaf litter, the colour can be quite variable between black and greyish.

Identifying features for the Black Trompette:

Aporia.j, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Cap:

Greyish black funnel shaped mushroom , the cap is usually enrolled at the edge and the centre is a deep funnel going the whole way down the stem. The cao surface is slightly felty

Jerzy Opioła, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Stem:

The stem is thin fleshed and hollow, it’s hard to say where the cap ends and the stem begins.

Edatoscana, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Gills:

There are no obvious gills but it can have small ridges running up the stem to the cap.

Smell:

Lovely and mushroomy

Spores:

Cream to Yellow

Uses

One of the best tasting mushrooms there is.

Classiccardinal, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

In Food

This mushroom is excellent fried, dried and added to soups and stews but my favourite is stuffed with sticky flavoured rice and gently fried.

Known Hazards

None

Potential lookalikes

There’s nothing else out there that looks like this mushroom, but I have been disappointed when spotting a black Elfin Saddle from afar and hoped it was a black trompette.