This contribution to the genus Cantharellus in North America deals with the smaller, reddish pink species from the Gulf of Mexico states and eastern United States. C. texensis sp. nov. is presented as a new southern lookalike of C. cinnabarinus. The morphological species concepts are supported by newly generated molecular sequence data from the protein coding gene tef1. Similarities to C. persicinus, a third pinkish taxon, are discussed. The very different microscopic features for the three taxa are illustrated in detail. C. cinnabarinus is neotypified. C. minor forma intensissima is considered to be possibly unrelated not only to the discussed taxa in this paper but also to typical C. minor.