Herb. No. 173 · Cantharellaceae
Temperate oak and beech woods. Habitat map, not a pin for this year’s flush.
Native · Europe · North America
Native Also grown
LegalCautionfungus
Black trumpet
Craterellus cornucopioides
The horn of plenty — a hollow gray-black chanterelle relative that smells of truffle and hides in the leaf litter on purpose.
Black trumpets are vase-shaped, hollow to the base, without true gills. They fruit on soil in temperate woods, often after rain, often invisible until you have seen one. Traditional food when correctly named. Not a kit crop. This plate is recognition and cooking. Dry they become a house-truffle.
Flavor
Smoke, dried fruit, truffle, black tea. Dry-sauté; they are thin and can scorch.
Parts used
Fruiting body
Helpful
- Among the best wild flavors when you are sure
- Few deadly lookalikes if you have the hollow vase
Cautions
- Easy to walk past
- Not a garden crop
- Grit in the hollow