Mushroom picking: How to avoid costly mistakes this season

The mushroom season is slowly winding down, so it's time to prepare a small knife, basket, and high boots. A walk in the forest is good training for observation skills. When you find this mushroom, grab your camera and take a picture. Do not bring it home with you, as this may result in quite a hefty fine. It is easy to mistake it for an edible mushroom, but a simple trick will allow you to distinguish between them.

Even experienced mushroom pickers can make mistakes, so it is worth staying vigilant when collecting forest gifts and never putting specimens in the basket if you are not 100 percent sure of them. This is the basic and most important rule that must be adhered to without exception.

During forest walks, with a bit of luck, you can come across a scarletina bolete. Some people immediately consider it a poisonous mushroom due to its color. Its cap, with a suede surface, ranges in color from brown to dark red, and the tubes under the cap are an intense red color. The stem of the mushroom is yellow and covered with red tufts, which gives it a unique appearance. It is called the aristocrat among mushrooms, and it is a quite fitting name because finding it is really difficult.

It is considered a summer mushroom because it most often appears from May to October. It is commonly found in coniferous forests, especially under spruces and firs. The peak season is at the end of August and the beginning of September. It is a very tasty and valuable mushroom in the kitchen, but it needs to be properly processed.

A mushroom similar to the Boletus erythropus is the Boletus satanas. At first glance, they look similar, but before you enthusiastically take such a rare specimen home, pay attention to the details.

First of all, check the color of the pores under the cap – for the Boletus erythropus, they are brick red (as the name suggests), and for the satanic bolete, more yellowish. Additionally, the satanic bolete has a characteristic net on the stem, which the erythropus does not have.

The characteristic feature of the Boletus erythropus is its rapid and intense reaction to damage. The flesh of the mushroom almost immediately turns an intense blue color. In the case of the satanic bolete, the bruising is much weaker and occurs more slowly.

- An inexperienced mushroom picker has about as much chance of finding the Boletus satanas as winning a million in the lottery. Boletus satanas are not common; they grow in specific environments. The Boletus erythropus mainly grows in coniferous forests, where you will not find the satanic bolete - emphasizes mycologist Wiesław Kamiński in an interview with Interia.

Remember also that the satanic bolete is very rare and protected, so if you come across it, it is best to take a picture and leave it alone. It is always worth using verified mushroom atlases and consulting your findings with an expert at the health department if you have any doubts.

The above descriptions are for orientation purposes only and cannot be used to independently, certain identify mushroom species. The differences between individual species can be subtle and require experience and specialized knowledge.