Mushroom season: when do which mushrooms grow?

Instead of buying mushrooms wrapped in plastic from the supermarket, many prefer to collect or grow them yourself. The offer is rich, but not every type of mushroom has mushroom season at the same time. If you are interested in general mushroom picking, you will find an extensive range in autumn. If you are looking for special types of mushrooms, you should know when the best time to mushroom is for which types of mushrooms.

Start of season: August/September – October

When it rains outside after a few days of drought and the sun increasingly loses its strength, numerous types of mushrooms sprout from mid-August. This is where the official mushroom season begins.

mid August

Bovist(Bovista)

• Taste: very fungus
• Likelihood of confusion: with poisonous small, globular potato puffball
• incident: Lawns, parks, meadows, dry lawns

pearl fungus(Amanita rubescens)

• Taste: mild, earthy to slightly bitter
• Likelihood of confusion: with poisonous panther mushroom (Amanita pantherina)
• incident: mainly in deciduous and coniferous forests
• Can only be eaten cooked

late August/September

Numerous types of mushrooms such as meadow, forest and aniseed mushrooms

• Taste: the browner the nuttier
• Likelihood of confusion: with poisonous death cap mushrooms
• incident: compost, forests, meadows, gardens

chestnut boletus(Imleria badia)

• Taste: pleasantly mushroomy
• Likelihood of confusion: with porcini mushrooms, inedible boletus (Tylopilus felleus)
• incident: mainly in coniferous forests with spruce
• Special feature: grows as early as June/July in humid summer

Herbsttrumpet / Totentrumpet(Craterellus cornucopioides)

• Taste: strongly aromatic
• Likelihood of confusion: no poisonous "double"
• incident: in clusters in deciduous forests
• Special feature: eaten fresh for many, inedible – great taste when dried

Shaggy Tintling(Coprinus comatus) – family of mushrooms

• Taste: mushroomy, mild, sweetish
• Likelihood of confusion: with other, poisonous Tintlingen
• incident: mostly in parks, on meadows, on forest paths and forest edges as well as in the garden
• Particularities: is considered a health mushroom - raw taste less good

porcini mushrooms(Boletus sect. boletus)

• Taste: mild to intense
• Likelihood of confusion: inedible bile boletus (Tylopilus felleus), chestnut blank (Imleria badia)
• incident: mostly in mixed forest, like with spruce
• Very popular type of mushroom

chanterelles(Cantharellus cibarius)

• Taste: mildly fungal, cartilaginous
• Likelihood of confusion: tasteless false chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca)
• incident: in sparse forests with mossy soils

September October November

Smoke / Grey-Leaf Brimstone(Hypholoma capnoides)

• Taste: Mildly mushroomy, spicy, nutty
• Likelihood of confusion: Green-Leaf Brimstone, Brick-Red Brimstone— both highly toxic
• incident: in almost all forests – preferably beech and spruce forests as well as mixed beech-fir forests

Honey fungus / honey fungus(Armillaria)

• Taste: soapy, tart
• Likelihood of confusion: with Sparriger Schuppling (Pholiota squarrosa)
• incident: on living and dead wood

Mutabilis / Common Mutabilis(Kuehneromyces mutabilis)

• Taste: mild, aromatic
• Likelihood of confusion: with poison häuling (Gallerina marginata)
• incident: on dead hardwood, stumps, branches, occasionally on conifers

winter season

The wintry mushroom season begins at the end of November/beginning of December. If the weather conditions are not immensely icy and long-lasting, there is a good chance of being able to collect various winter mushrooms until around February. These include:

velvet foot(Flammulina velutipes)

• Taste: nutty
• risk of confusion with poisonous poison chief (Gallerina marginata)
• incident: usually near deciduous trees

Oyster Mushroom / Veal Mushroom(Pleurotus ostreatus)

• Taste: nutty
• Likelihood of confusion: with poisonous mussel mushrooms (Panellus serotinus)
• incident: on deadwood and deciduous trees

Coffee-brown fork funnel(Pseudoclitocybe cyathiformis)

• Taste: mild mushroom aroma
• Likelihood of confusion: other non-venomous funnel larvae
• incident: mostly in fir and beech forests, mixed forests, along grassy roadsides
• Delicacy in Greece and Bulgaria

Judas Ear / Chinese Morel(Auricularia auricula-judae)

• Taste: slightly nutty
• Likelihood of confusion: with lorel mushroom (Helvella)
• incident: often on juniper trees

Mushroom season between March and July

Early mushrooms are those that grow from March/June. In contrast to the autumn and winter mushrooms, they usually show up with significantly less taste and quality. Early mushrooms include:

March

March snails / snow agaric(Hygrophorus marzuolus)

• Taste: very mild
• Likelihood of confusion: with poisonous brick red crack fungus (Inocybe erubescens, syn. Inocybe patouillardii)
• incident: Mixed forest, fir, spruce

 Spruce cone carrots(Strobilurus esculentus)

• Taste: spicy, mushroomy, nutty, mild
• Likelihood of confusion: with pine cone carrots (Strobilurus tenacellus)
• incident: mainly in mixed and coniferous forests on spruce

Pinecone turnips(Strobilurus tenacellus)

• Taste: from spicy-mild to bitter and pungent
• Likelihood of confusion: with spruce cone carrots
• incident: mainly in mixed and coniferous forests on pines

April

Blister mugling(Peziza vesiculosa)

• Taste: very mild, hardly any taste of its own
• Likelihood of confusion: with inedible False Bubble Mugling (Peziza pseudoversiculosa syn. Peziza Amplissima)
• incident: mostly on dung, in mixed and deciduous forests

May

• Occasionally already porcini mushrooms (especially in the north and south) – (see under “From the end of August/September”)
• Occasionally already chanterelles (especially in the north) – (see under “From the end of August/September”)

June

Parasol / Common Parasol(Macrolepiota procera)

• Taste: pleasantly nutty, mild
• Likelihood of confusion: Saffron Giant Parakeet
• incident: in forests, on grassy areas, along paths and on calcareous soils

Best collection time

In addition to the mushroom season in which the different types of mushrooms grow, it also plays a role on which days and at what time of the day mushrooms are collected. Basically, slightly damp weather promotes growth, with warm and changeable weather providing an ideal time. Too dry conditions cause mushrooms to dry up quickly. Conditions that are too humid provoke rot and the formation of maggots. The best picking time for looking for mushrooms is therefore early morning in said months, when weather has preceded as described.

Year-round mushroom season

Depending on the weather conditions, mushrooms grow all year round. However, summer and autumn are the main seasons for most types of mushrooms. However, some types of mushrooms can be cultivated all year round in a well-insulated cellar. This is especially possible with mushrooms.

Learn more about mushrooms - types and varieties