Mushrooms in the New Forest: what grows there and why you can't pick them

You can't pick mushrooms in the New Forest. Forestry England, which manages the Crown Land, has asked visitors not to pick fungi "on any scale" since September 2016, and the National Trust bans it on its commons there too. You can still look, photograph and join a guided fungi walk, and the Forest is one of the best places in Britain to do that.

Below: why the New Forest matters for fungi, what you're likely to see and when, what is a rule and what is the law, and the species you should know about because they are protected or dangerous.

Why the New Forest is special for fungi

About 2,700 species of fungi have been recorded in the New Forest, roughly a quarter of the UK total. Forestry England and the New Forest National Park Authority both describe it as one of Britain's most important areas for fungi, and species new to science still turn up there.

The reason is the habitat. The Forest has thousands of hectares of old pasture woodland of oak, beech and holly, and around a thousand ancient trees, many of them centuries-old pollards. Old trees, standing dead wood and fallen trunks that are left to rot are exactly what many rare fungi need. Open heaths and grazed "lawns" add grassland fungi, and even the ponies help: the nail fungus (Poronia punctata), a rare species that grows on pony dung, has its British stronghold here.

In autumn 2025 the candelabra coral (Artomyces pyxidatus), once thought extinct in the UK, was found at several New Forest sites.

Can you pick mushrooms in the New Forest?

No. On Forestry England land the answer since 1 September 2016 is "look but please don't pick". Before that, commercial picking was banned and people were allowed a personal amount, usually given as 1.5 kg. Forestry England replaced that with a request not to pick at all across the New Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest, calling it a precautionary step. Its current fungi page says the same in 2026.

Other landowners in the Forest are stricter, not looser. The National Trust banned picking on its New Forest commons before 2016, and its byelaws prohibit taking fungi.

Is it illegal to pick mushrooms in the New Forest?

It depends on who picks, what and why. The "no picking" rule for ordinary people is a landowner rule, backed by signs. What is clearly against the law:

• Picking to sell. Under the Theft Act 1968, picking wild fungi is not theft unless it's done for reward, for sale or another commercial purpose. Commercial picking without the owner's permission can be theft, and Forestry England and Hampshire Police patrol for it.
• Picking a protected species. Four fungi are listed in Schedule 8 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, and picking them is an offence anywhere, by anyone. One of them, the bearded tooth, has its main British stronghold in the New Forest.
• Damaging the protected site. The same Act makes it an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage the wildlife a Site of Special Scientific Interest is protected for.

Whether taking a handful of common mushrooms for your own supper is itself a crime is disputed. Some foragers argue the signs have no legal force; the New Forest Association, which campaigned for the ban, points to the law on damaging the SSSI. Forestry England said in 2021 that it was not seeking to prosecute people taking small amounts for themselves, but it still asks them not to. We didn't find a reported prosecution of a personal picker. The simple answer is the one on the signs: please don't pick.

If you see someone picking on a large scale, Forestry England asks you to call 0300 067 4601.

Why picking was stopped

The official reasons are pressure and precaution. The Forest had seen a rise in foraging, including organised groups picking for restaurants, and conservation bodies and residents were worried. Forestry England's 2015 statement spoke of the "indiscriminate wholesale clearance" of fungi, which also robbed other visitors of the autumn display.

Fungi matter beyond the plate. They break down leaf litter and dead wood, partner with tree roots, and their fruitbodies feed and shelter hundreds of kinds of insects and other small animals.

Scientists don't agree on how much picking itself harms fungi. The fungus lives on as threads in the soil and wood, so some mycologists compare picking a mushroom to picking blackberries, and the few studies show little effect on the fungus itself. Trampling, disturbance and the loss of spores and food for wildlife are less studied. That's why the ban is described as precautionary rather than proven necessary.

When to see fungi in the New Forest

The best time is from late September to November, especially a week or two after good rain, with October the peak. The National Park Authority suggests enjoying them before the first frosts. A few species keep their own calendar: chicken of the woods from early summer into winter, wood blewit from late autumn into the New Year, and shaggy inkcap from spring to November.

The Forest is popular with fungi walkers at Bolderwood, the Blackwater Arboretum, Setthorns and Pondhead Inclosures and Roydon Woods.

Fungi you are likely to see

These are species the National Park Authority and local guides name for the New Forest:

• Fly agaric: the red cap with white spots, under birch on acid soils and dry heath. Poisonous.
• Chicken of the woods: bright yellow-orange brackets, mostly on oak.
• Beefsteak fungus: a red, tongue-shaped bracket on oak, one of the October sights.
• Amethyst deceiver: small and violet, in leaf litter and moss.
• Brown birch bolete, honey fungus, wood blewit and shaggy inkcap.
• Puffballs, stinkhorns, staghorns and bracket fungi on dead wood.
• Waxcaps, such as the crimson waxcap, on the unimproved grassland of the lawns.

Rare and protected species

The bearded tooth, also called lion's mane (Hericium erinaceus), is the New Forest's best-known rarity. It looks like a white cascade of soft spines on old beech, oak or birch, from late August to December. It's protected by law, and in 2018 three fruitbodies were cut from a tree and the case went to the police and Natural England. Recording apps hide its exact locations for the same reason. Read more on our bearded tooth page.

Its relatives, the tiered tooth (Hericium cirrhatum) and the coral tooth (Hericium coralloides), are not on the protected list but are very rare, and Hampshire is one of their strongholds. The Forest's protection paperwork also names the rare Mycena picta and the nail fungus.

Deadly fungi in the New Forest

The death cap grows in the New Forest's oak and beech woods, especially in the south, from midsummer to late autumn. It causes more fatal mushroom poisonings than any other fungus. The panther cap grows in the same woods and is also seriously poisonous. The false death cap is poisonous but less dangerous. Even the wood blewit has a poisonous lilac lookalike among the webcaps.

Death cap poisoning is rare in the UK but it happens. In 2012 a woman in Somerset died after cooking death caps she'd found in her garden. Symptoms start many hours after the meal, when the liver is already being damaged.

Children are most at risk of eating a wild mushroom by accident: in a UK review of ten years of poisoning enquiries, six in ten cases involved children, and October was the busiest month. If someone may have eaten a poisonous mushroom and has symptoms, call 999 or go to A&E. If you're unsure, call NHS 111. Take the mushroom, or a photo of it, with you. More in mushroom poisoning: symptoms and first aid.

How to enjoy fungi in the New Forest legally

• Join a guided walk. Forestry England allows a small number of educational fungi walks with local organisations. Its free Fungi Educational Walk, led by experts from the Hampshire Fungus Recording Group, ran on 25 and 26 October 2026. The group itself runs forays through the season, about half of them in the Forest, and doesn't collect for eating. Anyone leading a foray needs Forestry England's permission in advance.
• Take a course. Some foraging courses run in the Forest with Forestry England's permission for teaching. On these, a few mushrooms are picked for identification and nothing goes home.
• Photograph and record. "Leave only photographs" is the Forest's own advice. Photos uploaded to recording apps such as iNaturalist can end up in the national Fungal Records Database, so your walk helps science.
• Bring a guide, not a basket. Our mushroom identifier and species pages can help you name what you've photographed.

If you want to pick for the kitchen, do it elsewhere, on land where you have a right to be and the owner allows it, never in nature reserves, and never protected species. Our foraging ethics and law guide covers the basics.