Charbonnier (Tricholoma portentosum): where and when it grows
The mushroom of the cold. When nothing is left in the pine wood, it keeps coming up.
The charbonnier (Tricholoma portentosum) comes out from October to January, at its best in November, in woods of Scots pine, maritime pine, Aleppo pine, black pine and mountain pine, from low ground up to the middle mountains. It is also known as sooty head.
See where it is ready this week
No area is ready for charbonniers this week: the forest is still asleep.
The charbonnier is the last good mushroom of the year in the pine woods: it comes up in November and December, with the first frosts, when saffron milk caps and porcini have already gone. Grey, slippery and sweet-fleshed, it is the reward for those who keep going out to the woods when others have stopped.
It wants damp, cold soil and withstands the frosts that kill the others. The map follows it in the pine-wood areas when the soil temperature drops below ten degrees.
What it needs to come out
First, a good rain, the kind that soaks the ground. 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, maritime pine, Aleppo pine, black pine and mountain pine, from low ground up to the middle mountains, without being fussy about the soil.
Charbonniers by province (in Spanish)
- Charbonniers in Barcelona · 319 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Burgos · 380 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Girona · 216 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Huesca · 449 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in La Rioja · 156 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in León · 454 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Lleida · 344 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Lugo · 431 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Navarra · 201 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Ourense · 264 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Segovia · 221 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Soria · 289 zones with habitat
- Charbonniers in Teruel · 470 zones with habitat
How the forest is doing this week
- Asleep 4194 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.
- Morel: A honeycomb on a stem. It comes up where nobody expects it and is gone in two weeks.
- Saffron milk cap: The king of the pine woods. Orange, stubborn and generous when its moment comes.
- March mushroom: The one that comes up under the retreating snow. Cold, hidden and among the most sought after of the year.
- Yellowfoot: Small, golden and by the handful in damp pine woods once the cold has arrived.