March mushroom (Hygrophorus marzuolus): where and when
The one that comes up under the retreating snow. Cold, hidden and among the most sought after of the year.
The march mushroom (Hygrophorus marzuolus) comes out from January to May, at its best in February, in woods of Scots pine and black pine, with some beech and silver fir, mostly in the mountains.
See where it is ready this week
No area is ready for March mushrooms this week: the forest is still asleep.
The March mushroom appears in mountain pine and beech woods as the snow retreats, often still half buried. It is the first good mushroom of the year and the hardest to spot: you have to know where to look and bend down a lot.
It is not triggered by rain but by the thaw: soaked, cold ground, just a few degrees above freezing, for weeks. The map follows it in the high areas where that thaw is under way.
What it needs to come out
First, a rain that soaks the ground, no downpour needed. Then patience: it usually appears after two or three weeks, as long as the soil holds on to that moisture and stays cold, without freezing. 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 and black pine, with some beech and silver fir, mostly in the mountains, without being fussy about the soil.
March mushrooms by province (in Spanish)
- March mushrooms in Barcelona · 204 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Burgos · 343 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Girona · 117 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Huesca · 363 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in La Rioja · 136 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in León · 461 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Lleida · 286 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Lugo · 397 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Navarra · 279 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Ourense · 108 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Segovia · 81 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Soria · 198 zones with habitat
- March mushrooms in Teruel · 373 zones with habitat
How the forest is doing this week
- Asleep 3346 zones
Forecast of 11 September, updated every day.
Mushrooms that share its woods
- Porcini: The most sought after. Discreet, demanding and fleeting: you have to be there in its week.
- Charbonnier: The mushroom of the cold. When nothing is left in the pine wood, it keeps coming up.
- Saffron milk cap: The king of the pine woods. Orange, stubborn and generous when its moment comes.
- Chanterelle: Yellow, fragrant and loyal: once it finds its corner, it comes back every year.
- Yellowfoot: Small, golden and by the handful in damp pine woods once the cold has arrived.
- Black trumpet: Black, invisible in the leaf litter and delicious. Those who can see it would not swap it for anything.