Many foragers only wake up in September, yet the forest gives something almost all year. Each season has its heroes and its rhythm. Here is a guide to the mushroom year, from the first spring specimens to the species that survive frost.
Spring: May and June
Spring belongs to the connoisseurs. Morels appear, among the most prized of mushrooms, but in Poland they are legally protected, so we admire them rather than pick them. Towards the end of spring the first, still shy, fruit bodies of the summer species stir, especially after warm, humid days.
Morchella esculenta, the morel, protected, not for picking.
First Cantharellus cibarius, chanterelles, already from June in warm years.
Early Boletus edulis, porcini, if the spring is wet.
Summer: July and August
Summer is the height of chanterelles and the first real flushes of porcini and bay boletes. This is a good time to learn identification, because there are many species and the pressure is not yet as fierce as in September. After summer storms the forest can surprise you overnight.
Cantharellus cibarius, chanterelles, in full season.
Imleria badia, the bay bolete, one of the most common.
Boletus edulis, the porcini, first big flushes.
Leccinum and Suillus, scaber stalks and slippery jacks, especially under birch and pine.
Autumn: September and October
This is the mushroom peak, the months most of us head into the forest for. The waves of summer and purely autumn species overlap, and baskets fill fastest. As the cold arrives, species that were not there before come in.
Boletus edulis, porcini, in full flush.
Armillaria mellea, honey fungus, in clusters on stumps and roots.
Lactarius deliciosus, the saffron milk cap, in pine woods.
Macrolepiota procera, the parasol, in meadows and forest edges.
Late autumn and winter: November onward
When the first frosts come, most species vanish, but the forest does not close entirely. A few species are adapted to the cold and appear once the competition is already asleep. The harvests are slimmer, but a walk through a quiet winter forest has a charm of its own.
Flammulina velutipes, the velvet shank, withstands frost.
Pleurotus ostreatus, the oyster mushroom, on dead deciduous wood.
Some valuable species, such as morels, are legally protected in Poland and must not be picked. The list is updated from time to time, so before you put something rare in your basket, make sure that species may be legally collected. Protection also applies to places: reserves and national parks have their own rules.
A calendar is only a starting point, because every year is different. A warm, wet autumn shifts the flushes, a drought delays them. The best calendar is your own log of finds from previous years. After a few seasons you start to read the forest better than any general table.