Assessment Notes

Justification

This species is widespread in New Zealand and there are some records from southern Australia. It is not thought to face any significant threat and does meet the conditions for listing as threatened under any criterion. Therefore, Cantharellus insignis is assessed as Least Concern.

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Geographic range

This species occurs primarily throughout New Zealand. The majority of New Zealand specimens occur in the north of the country, however a smaller number of occurrences are known from human observation from the south (GBIF 2023, iNaturalist 2023, the latter under the synonym Podoserpula insignis). Observations from New Zealand frequently place this species within native lowland podocarp forest (per Wilton 2023). There are a small number of observations of this species from the south of Victoria in Australia as well (iNaturalist 2023).

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Population and Trends

This species does not appear to be under significant threat or in decline, as it is thought to exist within habitat which is not significantly threatened. This species' population is therefore thought to be stable. GBIF (2023) includes 14 records of this species, while iNaturalist (2023) has 35 research grade observations, but with a potential small amount of overlap in terms of recorded sites between the two. At a rough estimate there may be 38 separate recorded sites for this species, but with plenty of available habitat the total number could be 25 to 50 times higher. It is not clear if this is a strictly lignicolous species, as it does appear to occur on the ground as well an intermediate scaling factor of five mature individuals per genet is used here (see Dahlberg and Mueller 2011), and assuming two to five genets per site this would give a total population size within the range of 9,500-47,500 mature individuals.

Population Trend: Stable

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Habitat and Ecology

This species is known to occur throughout the native lowland podocarp forests of New Zealand (Wilton 2023). It has been observed fruiting between April and June (Wilton 2023). It has been noted growing on decaying wood (Index Fungorum Partnership 2023), while it may also grow on the ground (per images from iNaturalist 2023) and potential host plants include Kunzea sp., Cyatheales, Nothofagus fusca and Beilschmiedia tawa (Wilton 2023).

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Threats

There don't appear to be any significant threats to this species throughout its range in New Zealand.

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Conservation Actions

This species does not appear to be significantly under threat across its native range. This species should be closely monitored in its known range, which is not thought to be threatened at this time, and protected in order to ensure its stability. Little further research is needed for this species, however confirming its existence inside the Dandenong Ranges National Park would be useful in confirming a lack of threat to this species. Further research to ascertain a clearer population size estimate would also be of benefit.

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Source and Citation

Westrip, J.R.S. & Liddle, T.A. 2025. Cantharellus insignis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T269706997A269706999. Accessed on 25 November 2025.

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• Country occurrence