Yellowfoot (Craterellus lutescens): where and when it grows

Small, golden and by the handful in damp pine woods once the cold has arrived.

Clusters of yellowfoot on the moss of a pine wood, with orange-brown caps and yellow stems
Yellowfoot in the moss of a damp pine wood: orange-brown cap with a hole in the centre and a hollow orange-yellow stem.

The yellowfoot (Craterellus lutescens) comes out from October to January, at its best in November, in woods of Scots pine, mountain pine, black pine, maritime pine and Aleppo pine, with some silver fir and holm oak, from the middle mountains upwards.

See where it is ready this week

No area is ready for yellowfoot this week: the forest is still asleep.

The yellowfoot comes up in late autumn in damp mountain pine woods, among the moss, often in hundreds within a few metres. It is the mushroom of the full baskets of November in the Pyrenees and their foothills, and it withstands the cold that has already finished off the others.

It wants soaked, cool soil: October and November rains that sink into a mossy pine wood. The map follows it in the high areas while the moisture holds and the soil drops below ten degrees.

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 Scots pine, mountain pine, black pine, maritime pine and Aleppo pine, with some silver fir and holm oak, from the middle mountains upwards, without being fussy about the soil.

Yellowfoot 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).