Porcini (Boletus edulis): where they grow now and when

The most sought after. Discreet, demanding and fleeting: you have to be there in its week.

A porcini with a brown cap and a thick, pale stem next to another turned over to show its pores, among pine needles and flowering heather
Porcini in a pine wood with heather: brown cap with a paler edge, pores instead of gills and a thick, pale stem with a fine white net.

The porcini (Boletus edulis / Boletus pinophilus) comes out from September to December, at its best in October, and sometimes also in summer, in woods of beech, pedunculate oak, sessile oak, Pyrenean oak, sweet chestnut and silver fir, and also among Scots pine, maritime pine, black pine and mountain pine, from the middle mountains upwards. It is also known as cep, king bolete, penny bun.

See where it is ready this week

Right now, the best day forecast for porcini is 14 September.

The porcini is the most famous mushroom and the least patient. It prefers high, cool pine woods, acid soils and early autumn; its big moment is October, and a cold snap that comes too soon shuts the door on it. That is why those who look for it keep an eye on the sky: each flush lasts days, not weeks.

micomapa follows for you what the porcini needs: the rain that wakes it, the moisture that sustains it and the soil temperature at its best. And it tells you when the window opens, so the first basket is yours.

What it needs to come out

First, a generous rain, the kind that soaks down to the roots. Then patience: it usually appears after two or three weeks, as long as the soil holds on to that moisture and stays cool. If a frost, too much water or a drying wind comes in between, the flush is aborted and never shows.

Where to look

It comes out in woods of beech, pedunculate oak, sessile oak, Pyrenean oak, sweet chestnut and silver fir, and also among Scots pine, maritime pine, black pine and mountain pine, from the middle mountains upwards, always on acid soils.

Porcini by province (in Spanish)

How the forest is doing this week

Forecast of 11 September, updated every day.

Mushrooms that share its woods

How we know when the forest wakes up (in Spanish).