The mushroom season isn’t a fixed period but a chain of overlapping windows. It opens in spring with the morel and ends with the first hard frost. Exactly when is decided not by the calendar but by the moisture of the weeks before.
Spring, April to May: morels and St George’s mushrooms. A short window, hard to catch.
Summer, June to August: chanterelles and the first porcini, as soon as it’s wet enough. Summer bolete and orange-cap boletes join in.
Autumn, September to November: the main season. Porcini, bay bolete, parasol, honey fungus and cauliflower fungus. The highest number of species in the year.
Mushrooms don’t fruit on command. Below the surface sits a mycelium that builds up moisture over weeks. The fruiting body is its response, often with a one- to two-week delay.
So the question “has it rained enough over the last two to three weeks, and has it stayed mild since?” says more than a glance at the date. A dry September delivers less than a wet August.
The first strong frost ends the season for most species fairly abruptly.
A season calendar is a search aid, not an identification aid. That a mushroom stands in the right place at the right time says nothing about its species: the death cap has the same main season as the porcini. Every find is identified individually.
In the narrow sense with the morels in April. The main season for most edible mushrooms runs from September to November.
Usually one to two weeks after enough moisture. What matters is the moisture built up over several weeks, not the single shower.
With the first lasting frost. A few species like the oyster mushroom grow on into winter.
Forage shows you the species in your region and pings you when the season starts.
This text is orientation on season and habitat, not an identification guide. It makes no claim about whether any specific plant or mushroom is edible. Many species have toxic look-alikes. Never eat anything you haven’t identified beyond doubt yourself, and when in doubt consult a field guide or a knowledgeable person. Mind conservation law and property rights.
