When the bay bolete grows and where to find it

The bay bolete is a forager favorite, and for good reason: it's tasty, meaty, and turns up in abundance where porcini have already grown scarce. Best of all, its season runs long, right up to the first frosts, when the forest is almost empty.

Let's look at when the bay bolete grows, and in which forests and under which trees to search for it.

When the bay bolete grows

The first bay boletes appear as early as July, but the real peak comes in September-October. It's a fall mushroom: it handles the cool weather well and keeps fruiting as porcini fade. The last specimens turn up in November, until the first hard frosts.

Like all boletes, the bay bolete loves moisture after rain combined with warm soil. In fall, when the nights are cool and fog adds moisture, it comes up in especially big flushes. To catch the good windows, use the mushroom radar.

Where to look for bay boletes

The bay bolete prefers coniferous and mixed forests.

• Pine forests. The classic spot is under pines on sandy, acidic soils, often among moss.
• Mixed forests. It also turns up under spruces, oaks and beeches.
• Moss and old needles. It often hides in cushions of moss, with just its dark brown cap peeking out.
• The same spots every year. The mycelium lives for years, so remember your lucky clearings.

In fall there are more bay boletes than any other bolete, so in a pine forest they become the main prize.

How to recognize a bay bolete

• Cap dark brown, chestnut, dry and velvety, slightly slimy in wet weather.
• Tube layer yellowish-greenish; when pressed it turns blue.
• Stem brownish, paler than the cap, with no net pattern.
• Flesh yellowish; when cut it turns blue — that's normal and safe.

Don't be alarmed by the bluing: the bay bolete is edible, and turning blue when cut is natural for it. It's sometimes confused with porcini — we've written separately about how the bay bolete differs from porcini, and also about how it resembles Xerocomus ferrugineus.

What to keep in mind

• Bluing is normal. This is the main difference from poisonous boletes, whose flesh is different.
• Pick young ones. Old bay boletes go mushy and get wormy.
• Look in the moss. That's where, under the pines, it hides most often.

Sources

• “Key to the Fungi of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Imleria badia on GBIF, the global biodiversity database.
• Imleria badia on MycoBank, the international fungal nomenclature database.
• Imleria badia on Wikipedia.