Assessment Notes

Justification

Cantharellus amethysteus is a widespread species that is not thought to face any significant threats that would impact its overall risk of extinction in the near future. Therefore, it is assessed as Least Concern.

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Geographic range

Cantharellus amethysteus is a well-known species of Europe (I. Olariaga Ibarguren pers. comm. 2022) and into Türkiye (Solak and Türkoğlu 2022), which is widespread from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia (First Nature 2024, GBIF 2024). Not all areas of the Mediterranean region have readily available georeferenced locality data, and so are not mapped here. While there are records of this species in North America (e.g. see GBIF 2024), it is not known if these are conspecific with C. amethysteus (First Nature 2024) and discussion around specimens from the west of North America that were queried as potentially being close to C. amethysteus has suggested that they would not represent this species (see Redhead et al. 1997). Thus, North American records have been excluded from this assessment.

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Population and Trends

Although Cantharellus amethysteus is rare to occasional in its occurrence (First Nature 2024), its very wide distribution across Europe means that the population size will be large enough to not approach the thresholds for consideration as threatened. It is more common towards the south of its mapped distribution (First Nature 2024).

Its wide distribution and occurrence with a variety of potential hosts also mean that it is unlikely to be declining rapidly.

Population Trend: Unknown

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Habitat and Ecology

This is an ectomycorrhizal species that usually occurs with deciduous trees, although it can be rarely found with pines (First Nature 2024). It is more commonly associated with beech, birch and oak (First Nature 2024). In more northern areas it can be found fruiting in small groups from summer to early autumn, but towards the south of its range it may only start fruiting in autumn and continue throughout winter and into early spring (First Nature 2024).

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Threats

While it will face localised threats, there are not thought to be any threats that would significantly impact this species’ conservation status at this time.

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Conservation Actions

Research into the taxonomic placement of specimens collected under this name in North America should be be conducted to confirm if they should be included within this species or not. Work to ascertain an accurate population trend may also be useful.

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Use and Trade

This is an edible fungal species (First Nature 2024).

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Source and Citation

Westrip, J.R.S. 2025. Cantharellus amethysteus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T227507408A269712565. Accessed on 25 November 2025.

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• Country occurrence