The mushroom season starts late: where and when will we be able to find more?

BarcelonaThis year's mushroom season has started much later than it should have. A very long and extremely hot summer – the warmest in history – has left the forests very damaged and thirsty. Fortunately, the autumn rains did not miss the appointment, but the more abundant and general precipitation did not arrive until October. All of this has meant that in September, mushrooms were very hard to find where they usually start appearing first, in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees, as well as in a large part of Europe. This has caused mushrooms to be sold at a premium price until now.

In fact, the season will be much shorter than normal in these northern mountain areas of the country, a hub of attraction and epicenter of the mushroom-hunting world every autumn. The earliest mushrooms have not been abundant at all, and, despite the rain, with the cooling of the ground, it is unlikely that many more will appear, especially above 1,200 meters of altitude. Nor do the mid-season ones have a good forecast in these medium and high mountain areas. Therefore, chanterelles, porcini mushrooms, saffron milk caps, or winter chanterelles, for example, are already becoming scarcer in this sector.

“People must accept that soon the season in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees area will be almost extinct,” assures Daniel Siscart, a biologist and mycologist, to ARA. The expert states that in these areas of the country, the overall mushroom production will be only 20%, one-fifth of what is usual. Nothing like the good season of last year.

Therefore, with so much rain fallen this October, where and when will we be able to find mushrooms in abundance? According to Siscart, this year the big harvest will fall in the pre-coastal area starting in November. “It has been many years since we had such a rainy autumn in the lowlands; on the coast and especially in the pre-coastal area, it could be a very good season, one of the best in recent years and with mushroom production above average,” the expert states.

The best areas to find mushrooms

Thanks to the general and, in some cases, very abundant rains this October, natural parks and the rest of the wooded areas in the pre-coastal zone may experience a great mushroom season, from the north to the south of the country. It is the opposite of what happened in recent years, when the best weather conditions and harvests were concentrated in the Pyrenees and Pre-Pyrenees.

For example, the natural parks of Sant Llorenç del Munt i l’Obac, Montserrat, or the Garrotxa Volcanic Zone, Montseny, Les Guilleries, the entire area of the Transversal Range, or the Prades Mountains may experience an extraordinary season that will delight mushroom lovers. Even some areas of the coastal range that have benefited from so much rain—such as the Montnegre i el Corredor park—may experience an excellent season.

Lower elevations of the Pre-Pyrenees may also improve a season that has been lackluster until now, while the pre-coastal areas at both ends of the country will depend heavily on whether there are strong gusts of mistral and tramontane winds throughout the autumn, which would prevent the growth of mushrooms. We are talking, for example, about the Els Ports de Tortosa-Beseit natural park (in the Ebro region) or the Serra de l’Albera (in the Alt Empordà).

On the other hand, at medium and high mountain elevations, cold and frosts will gain ground during November, greatly limiting mushroom production. At the highest elevations of Montseny, the cold can also wreak havoc on this late start to the season. In fact, in much of the coastal and pre-coastal areas, the season may extend until early December if there are no “major setbacks” regarding the weather, explains Siscart, such as strong winds, late heat waves, or premature cold snaps.

The most abundant mushrooms this year

Early mushrooms have had a bad autumn so far. But everything points to the mid-season and late ones potentially being especially abundant along the coast and in the pre-coastal areas. For now, those known as saprophytic mushrooms, which feed on dead organic matter and emerge a few days after obtaining optimal conditions, have begun to fruit. With so much rain, they have been activated. This is the case for oyster mushrooms, parasol mushrooms, fairy ring mushrooms, or field mushrooms. Some other types of mushrooms that we can find in the forests now are the early summer porcini or the russulas.

However, the most sought-after and popular mushrooms have yet to bloom. This is the case for the saffron milk cap, which grows mainly under pine trees. Its main flowering is expected especially during the month of November at medium and low altitudes, and it "could experience a very good season" in the pre-coastal area, assures Siscart. "Instead of October as is usual, this year everything is running later and we will have to wait until November," adds the mycologist.

A situation that other full-autumn mushrooms will also experience, such as the pine mushroom, the blushing wood mushroom, the porcini, or the yellowfoot. All of them—including the saffron milk cap—are mycorrhizal mushrooms which, unlike saprophytes, depend on living trees and may take more days or weeks to emerge once they have received the necessary temperature and humidity, especially after so many consecutive months of extreme heat.

In contrast, the gray knight, the slimy wax cap, or the beefsteak fungus will still have to wait, as they are late-season mushrooms. Finally, it must be remembered that one should not eat mushrooms that are unknown or if there is doubt about whether they are edible, as they can be toxic and even fatal. Some can be confused with edible species. One of the best known is the death cap (Amanita phalloides), the most poisonous mushroom known.

Call to “not raze” the forests

The pre-coastal mountain ranges are close to densely populated areas, such as the Barcelona metropolitan area. Taking into account the good season expected in this sector, this suggests that its forests and natural parks may receive many more visitors than usual in search of mushrooms. In this sense, Siscart calls for not "destroying" the forests.

“Let people only pick the mushrooms they know, and not pull them all up and leave a forest destroyed and crushed,” appeals the expert, reminding us that we can always touch, smell, or take photos of the mushrooms without the need to harvest them. “Let's leave them alone and not disturb the fungi so much; let everyone enjoy the forest and the mushrooms, but without devastating them,” he expresses.

Mushrooms and the climate crisis

The climate crisis is altering the ecosystems of our home and the entire planet. And mushrooms, so sensitive to changes in weather, are undergoing significant changes in their behavior. A clear example is this year, as the exceptional heat of the last few months has greatly delayed the start of the season. If it hadn't rained so much, the situation in the forests would be critical.

“The trend is that, with the increase in temperature, we will have a more arid landscape, and this will reduce the production of mushrooms and their regularity,” warns Siscart. “Until now, the mushroom picker was very clear about the season and area where they could find mushrooms; but now, if they want to be successful, they must be much more aware of the weather forecast and how the conditions of the area that interests them are evolving to know if they can find mushrooms or not,” concludes the mycologist.