Estimated value
$20–50/lb fresh
Dried $120–220/lb
Dried is the money form. Fresh is fragile. $20–50/lb fresh equivalent when clean.
culinary · choice
Black Trumpet
Craterellus cornucopioides / C. fallax
Also called Horn of plenty, Trompette de la mort
Field marks
- Spore print
- White to pale orange (C. fallax)
- Smell
- Deep, smoky, fruity
- Trees / hosts
- Oak, Beech, Hazel
- Elevation
- Low hardwood hills.
Description
Thin black-to-charcoal hollow horns with a smooth or faintly wrinkled outer surface and no true gills. One of the most fragrant wild mushrooms. Easy to miss against duff.
Where it grows
Oak, beech, and mixed hardwood duff.
How to find it
Look down, not out. They hide in oak and beech leaf litter after rain. Once you spot one, get on your knees — they fruit in troops.
How to pick
Pinch at the base. They collapse if stacked wet. Dry the same day for sale.
Medicinal notes
Culinary aromatic.
Psychoactive / controlled
None. The French name 'trumpet of death' is poetic, not toxic.
Law
Legal food.
Lookalikes
Devil's urn (early spring)
Cup-shaped, tougher, wrong season. Not a choice edible.
Field ID ticket
Tick every required mark in the woods. 0/3 required. This still is not laboratory certainty.
Do not eat or sell this specimen. Missing required marks.