An evening in a young pine wood: a photo diary from 3 October

In a young pine wood in early October, in a single evening we found suede boletes, shaggy ink caps on dug-up ground, several brown pored mushrooms, a white scaly “parasol” and a brown gilled mushroom on a long stem. Only the suede boletes and the ink caps were definitely edible. We photographed the rest but never identified them, and it was these finds that taught us the main lessons of the evening.

The outing was on 3 October 2026, from half past four until sunset. We won't say exactly where: young pine plantations with dry grasses like this one can be found in many parts of Ukraine.

What kind of forest it is

Young pines, still short and dense, with clearings of dry grasses between them that shimmered silver against the sun. Here and there little birches and young oaks mixed in with the pines, and closer to the older forest the trunks grew taller and sparser.

Under the denser pines the light grew softer, and the dry grasses crept right up to the branches.

We also came across old, rotting stumps wrapped in thick cushions of moss, with fallen leaves all around.

Brown pored mushrooms: why we didn't identify them

The first find was a pored mushroom with a brown velvety cap and a pale stem with brownish fibers. It was growing in the grass under the pines. The photo shows the cap, the stem and even the base with soil on it. But we didn't photograph the underside of the cap, that is, the pores.

Nearby, in the pine needles and grass, sat several more of these mushrooms: one young one, with a pinkish-brown felty cap on a white stem, and two hiding in the thick grass so that only their brown tops were visible.

Most likely these are members of the bolete family, a birch bolete or a Xerocomus. But identifying a pored mushroom by its cap alone is like recognizing a person from behind. The color of the pores, a net pattern or scales on the stem, color change when cut: all of this can only be seen from below and from inside. So we honestly leave them unnamed, and we noted down a lesson for ourselves: turn the mushroom over and photograph the pores, the stem and a cut. We explained how to tell pored mushrooms from gilled ones in the article pored or gilled mushrooms.

Suede boletes on pine needles

The main edible find of the evening was the suede bolete. First we picked up two young ones whose stems had grown together. The caps were pale olive and matte, and the stems bright yellow.

From above, on the needles, both caps are dry, as if made of thin suede. That velvety texture is exactly why English speakers call it the “suede bolete”. Its cap color is variable, from olive to brown, so don't rely on color alone.

From the side you can see the key thing: under the cap there are yellow tubes with pores, not gills. The suede bolete's pores are yellow, darken with age and usually turn blue when pressed. Bluing does not mean the mushroom is poisonous, as we wrote in the article why Xerocomus boletes turn blue when cut.

The same shot shows one more detail: white mycelium at the base of the stems. The similar Xerocomus ferrugineus, which favors conifers, has, according to the MushroomExpert guide, yellow mycelium at the base, white flesh that doesn't turn blue when cut, and a stem with coarse ribs. The white mycelium in our shot is an argument in favor of the suede bolete, although without a cut we can't say for sure. More on this pair in the article the chestnut Xerocomus and the bay bolete.

Another suede bolete was growing at the forest edge, where shrubs and small broadleaf trees mixed in with the pines. That's natural for it: according to First Nature, the suede bolete forms mycorrhiza mainly with broadleaf trees and turns up at the edges of pine plantations where birch and willow grow. The cap was cream-colored and velvety, the stem yellow with brownish speckles.

From above the cap is even and velvety, with fine scratches. The suede bolete is edible. We explained how to cook it in the article how to clean and cook Xerocomus boletes.

The white “parasol”: beautiful and unidentified

The prettiest find of the evening stood in the grass under the pines, among the cones. A white mushroom with an egg-shaped cap covered in white flaky scales, and a white stem. Under the cap, a ring.

We carefully lifted it out of the ground. The stem is white, with a fine scaly pattern, thickening toward the bottom, and the base is entirely in the soil.

We don't know for sure what this mushroom is. It looks like Macrolepiota puellaris (bilopecherytsia divocha in Ukrainian): according to the Red Book of Ukraine, it has a white cap with white scales, a bulb at the base of the stem and a movable ring, and it grows, among other places, in coniferous forests. But a rare white amanita can look just the same. The base of the stem would tell them apart, and we didn't clear the soil from it. In amanitas a sac-like volva often hides there, which, as First Nature writes about the deadly poisonous destroying angel, is usually buried in the soil.

Either way, this mushroom doesn't go in the basket. Macrolepiota puellaris is listed in the Red Book of Ukraine as a rare species, so in Ukraine you may not pick it. And a white mushroom with a ring whose base you can't see is the classic “don't know — don't take” situation. How to read the ring and the volva is covered in the article mushrooms with a ring on the stem.

A brown mushroom on a long stem: we left it alone

One more find stood in the grass near cones and oak leaves: a gilled mushroom with a smooth brown cap on a long, fibrous brown stem. It may be a webcap, but a dangerous lookalike can't be ruled out here.

Among the webcaps there are species that damage the kidneys, such as the fool's webcap. The treacherous part is that the first symptoms don't appear right away: according to a review by French toxicologists, digestive upset begins on average after 3 days, and kidney damage even later. That's why brown gilled mushrooms we don't know stay in the forest.

Shaggy ink caps on dug-up ground

Toward evening, already near the older forest, we came across a group of shaggy ink caps. They were growing right on bare, dug-up ground. That's typical for them: the shaggy ink cap loves disturbed soil, roadsides and lawns.

Up close you can see the shaggy scales on the white, elongated caps. The caps still hug the stem tightly and are completely white. This is exactly when ink caps are good to eat: as soon as the gills turn pink and then black, the mushroom starts dissolving into a black liquid.

Shaggy ink caps must be cooked the same day, ideally within a few hours of picking, because they spoil quickly even in the fridge. More detail in the article shaggy ink cap: edible while it's white.

Cladonia on an old stump

In an open spot where the pines parted stood a rotten, hollow stump covered in a grey-green coating. This is Cladonia, a lichen, that is, a partnership between a fungus and an alga. Some Cladonia species are called reindeer moss, and they're usually seen on dry sand, but some species habitually settle on rotten stumps and logs.

Sunset over the pine wood

While we were looking at the mushrooms, the sun sank low. The grasses in the clearings lit up, and the young pines turned almost black against the sky.

At the forest edge a little birch was still holding on to its green leaves, with the young pine wood standing like a wall behind it.

In the older part of the forest the sun shone between the trunks, and long shadows fell on the grass.

The undergrowth here is sparse: grass, rusty patches of dry bracken and young trees. In this light you can see mushrooms from far away, but the last shots of that evening had no mushrooms in them.

We took the last photos on a sandy road along the forest edge. White sand, a little birch in yellow leaves, tall pines behind it and dense thickets of grasses along the edge.

What we took away from this evening

The upshot is simple: in a young pine wood in early October we came across suede boletes and shaggy ink caps, and everything else remained a mystery. And each mystery comes down to something we didn't do.

• Turn pored mushrooms over and photograph the pores and a cut, because without them the mushroom can't be identified.
• Clear the soil from the base of the stem of white mushrooms with a ring: that's exactly where the volva hides.
• Don't take unfamiliar brown gilled mushrooms: some of them are deadly poisonous.
• Photograph rare and Red Book species, and leave them be.

Wild mushrooms that go into the basket must always be cooked: Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment advises cooking every mushroom dish for at least 15 minutes. Guidelines for different species are in the cheat sheet how long to boil mushrooms. And for other pine forest mushrooms, read the articles what mushrooms grow in a pine forest and what grows in a pine forest in October.