Assessment Notes

Justification

Cantharellus microcibarius is thought to be a species of miombo woodland, with georeferenced collections from Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo. There are also potential records from Gabon and Cameroon, but these would be outside of miombo woodland, so further work is required to confirm that the species may indeed have a wider habitat tolerance or not. Irrespective of whether these records are included or not, C. microcibarius potentially has a large range, and is likely to occur in other sites and countries in suitable areas of miombo woodland. There may be some localised threats within this range, but overall the species is not thought to approach the thresholds for listing as threatened under any criterion. Therefore, it is assessed as Least Concern.

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Geographic range

This species was described from the Province of Haut-Katanga in southern Democratic Republic of Congo (Heinemann 1966). Further records come from this Province and there is also a georeferenced site in Burundi (see Botanicalcollections.be 2021). The plant species that this species is thought to associate with in southern Democratic Republic of Congo (Uapaca kirkiana and Julbernardia paniculata; De Kesel et al. 2017) are species of miombo woodland, and Degreef et al. (2016) treat this species as a miombo woodland species. This therefore puts into question a putative record from Gabon (Botanicalcollections.be 2021), and reference to this species being found in Cameroon (Onguene and Kuyper 2019).

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Population and Trends

As the species could potentially be found over a very wide distribution (if it is across miombo woodland), the population size is expected to be very large. There are ongoing threats to its habitat within its range, and so it is tentatively suspected to be in decline.

Population Trend: Decreasing

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Habitat and Ecology

This species is a miombo woodland species (Degreef et al. 2016), and the plant species that this species is thought to associate with in southern Democratic Republic of Congo (Uapaca kirkiana and Julbernardia paniculata; De Kesel et al. 2017) are species of miombo woodland.

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Threats

Ongoing threats to its habitat such as land conversion for agriculture, mining and logging could be having localised impacts on the species.

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Conservation Actions

Further research is needed to ascertain the full distribution of this species. This research should also investigate the habitat preferences of Cantharellus microcibarius, to see whether it is possible that it could occur in areas outside of miombo woodland; and as such whether the descriptions of the species occurring in Gabon and Cameroon do represent this species.

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Use and Trade

This species is edible (Degreef et al. 2016, De Kesel et al. 2017).

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Source and Citation

Westrip, J.R.S. 2025. Cantharellus microcibarius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2025: e.T269710381A269710383. Accessed on 25 November 2025.

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• Country occurrence