Mushroom Foraging by Season: What to Find Each Month

Still cold in most places, and there’s not a lot happening. But if you know where to look, scarlet elf cups (Sarcoscypha) are showing up in damp woodland,little bright red cups sitting on mossy sticks and fallen branches. They’re gorgeous but not great eating. More of a “oh, spring is coming” signal than a meal.

Wood ear mushrooms on elder trees are also fruiting now, and those actually are worth collecting,they rehydrate beautifully in soups and stir-fries. March is the month of patience. The forest is waking up, but slowly.

This is when morel season begins and the morel hunters lose their minds. Morchella esculenta ,the yellow morel,starts popping up in river bottoms, old orchards, and the edges of deciduous forests. Burn morels appear in areas that had wildfires the previous year, sometimes in absurd quantities.

The trigger is soil temperature hitting around 50°F. Serious morel hunters carry soil thermometers. That’s not a joke. In Europe, late April also brings St. George’s mushroom (Calocybe gambosa) in pastures and hedgerows,a solid, meaty mushroom that smells like fresh meal.

Peak morel season in the northern US and Canada. If you haven’t found yours yet, now’s the time, the window is closing. Dryad’s saddle (also called pheasant back) starts appearing on dead elms and other hardwoods. It’s best when very young and the edges are still tender.

In the southern states, chicken of the woods is already fruiting on oaks and other hardwoods. Bright orange shelves on a dead tree,you can’t miss it.

June is the month foragers start checking their spots. Chanterelles begin appearing in the southeast US and southern Europe, golden, funnel-shaped, smelling faintly of apricots. They’re mycorrhizal, which means they form partnerships with living trees, so they come back in the same spots year after year. For identification help, see MushroomExpert.com.

Early chicken of the woods is also going strong now. If you forage in hardwood forests, bring a bag,June can surprise you.

Peak chanterelle season across most of the Northern Hemisphere. Black trumpets are hiding in the leaf litter now too,they’re almost impossible to see until your eye learns the pattern, and then suddenly you see them everywhere.

Lobster mushrooms show up in the Pacific Northwest, which are actually a parasitic fungus that colonizes another mushroom and turns it bright red. In Europe, summer porcini are in season. July is a good month.

August is abundance month. Late chanterelles are still going. Hen of the woods (maitake) starts showing up at the base of oaks in late August, massive, layered clusters that can weigh 10+ pounds.

In European meadows, parasol mushrooms are standing tall in the grass, and giant puffballs the size of footballs are appearing in fields and along hedgerows. If you’ve never sliced a giant puffball into steaks and fried them in butter, you’re missing out.

If you only forage one month a year, make it September. This is the best month, full stop. Porcini (king boletes) are at their peak,fat, firm, and hiding under spruce and pine in the mountains. Hen of the woods is peaking too.

In the Pacific Northwest, matsutake season begins,those spicy, aromatic mushrooms that sell for absurd prices in Japan. Honey mushrooms are absolutely everywhere, fruiting in massive clusters at the base of trees and stumps. September is overwhelming in the best possible way. You will find more than you can eat.

Late porcini for the lucky ones. Blewits (Lepista nuda) are fruiting now,beautiful purple mushrooms in leaf litter and compost heaps. Here’s the thing about blewits: they actually taste better after a light frost, which concentrates their flavor.

Fly agaric appears under birches,the iconic red cap with white spots. Not edible (well, not safely), but it means the season is turning. Shaggy manes pop up in lawns, paths, and disturbed ground. Hedgehog mushrooms ,with their tiny teeth instead of gills,are one of the safest wild mushrooms to identify, and they’re excellent eating.

In California, candy cap mushrooms (Lactarius rubidus) are showing up, and they smell exactly like maple syrup. People make candy cap cookies. Seriously.

The season is winding down but it’s not over. Oyster mushrooms are fruiting on dead wood,they handle cold weather better than most species and you can find them well into November, sometimes later. Late blewits are still around.

Velvet shank (Flammulina velutipes) is one of the few mushrooms that actually fruits in near-freezing temperatures. It has a dark, velvety stem and a slimy orange cap, and it’s the wild ancestor of the enoki mushroom you see in grocery stores. Wood ears are back too. November foraging requires more walking and less finding, but the woods are quiet and beautiful.

Winter foraging is a real thing, just don’t expect abundance. Velvet shank fruits straight through winter, you can find it on dead elm and willow even when there’s snow on the ground. Oyster mushrooms pop up during mild spells, and if you get a few days above freezing in January, it’s worth checking your known spots.

Turkey tail is around year-round,it’s not a culinary mushroom (way too tough to eat), but it’s used medicinally and there’s legitimate research behind it. Scarlet elf cups return toward the end of February, which means the cycle is about to start again.

Winter is for reading field guides, cleaning your gear, and planning spring routes. Also for ordering dried porcini online and pretending that counts as foraging.