Overview
- Recent rain and cool nights have triggered a strong flush across many regions, with porcini, parasol, bay boletes and giant puffballs among the finds.
- Poison information centres field hundreds of suspected cases each year; Erfurt’s centre recorded nearly 70 in August—about triple normal—and reports a busy September and October.
- Experts advise harvesting only species identified with certainty, consulting trained mushroom advisors or poison hotlines, and avoiding smartphone identification apps.
- Foragers are reminded of limits of roughly 1–2 kilograms per person per day, bans in parks and protected areas, and restrictions on selling wild-picked mushrooms.
- Safe preparation guidance calls for heating edible mushrooms for 15–20 minutes, and warns that cooking does not neutralize toxins in poisonous species such as the death cap, which accounts for most fatal cases.