About
Autumn honey fungi are forest mushrooms gathered in autumn in coniferous and mixed woods. They are not the summer honey fungus.
Fresh harvest season
An orientation window for local open-field harvest in the regions already documented in the atlas — not retail, import, or storage availability.
Atlas regions summary: August 21 – October 15
Regions with data: Moscow OblastLeningrad OblastRepublic of Karelia
By region
| Region | Season | Peak | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Moscow Oblast | August 25 – October 15 | September 11 – October 10 | Approximate |
| Leningrad Oblast | August 21 – September 30 | September 1 – September 15 | Approximate |
| Republic of Karelia | September 1 – September 20 | September 1 – September 15 | Approximate |
In the kitchen
Autumn honey fungus is fried and stewed, added to soups, and salted or pickled.
Seasonality by region
Republic of Karelia(RU-KR)
Season: September – September; Peak; Ending PeakEnding
- Season
- September 1 – September 20
- Peak
- September 1 – September 15
- Confidence
- Approximate
Evidence
Autumn honey fungus. Shubin 1976 (Kivach): abundant fruiting about two weeks, usually the first half of September. 1968 mass August is a named exception after a cold July. Start 1 September; peak 1–15 September; end 20 September. Summer honey fungus (June–August) is not this product.
Sources
Mushrooms of the northern forests (Shubin, 1976): layers and months for Petrozavodsk latitude
Shubin V.I. — Griby severnykh lesov, 3rd ed., Petrozavodsk: Karelia
Layer calendar compiled for Petrozavodsk latitude (not Leningrad Oblast): 1st layer second half of June, short and few; 2nd 1st–2nd decades of July; 3rd from 2nd decade of August through October, often peaking in September. Same-book species accounts: chanterelle July–October; birch and aspen bolete June–October; true milk cap July–September (black milk cap separate); saffron milk cap July–October; autumn honey fungus abundant about two weeks, usually first half of September (1968 early August is an exception). Summer honey fungus June–August is not this product. Porcini is not modelled from this row (1986 monograph). Catalog morel (Morchella) uses a separate source row; April–May Gyromitra is not that product.
Leningrad Oblast(RU-LEN)
Season: August – September; Beginning; Peak; Ending BeginningPeakEnding
- Season
- August 21 – September 30
- Peak
- September 1 – September 15
- Confidence
- Approximate
Evidence
Autumn honey fungus. 2015: Armillaria borealis August–September, frequent, layer usually short; collections 23 August and 8–10 September. A. gallica September–November is rarer — November is not used. Start 21 August; peak 1–15 September; end 30 September. Summer honey fungus is not this product. Karelia’s two-week September window is not copied.
Sources
Macromycetes of Nizhnesvirsky Reserve (Stolyarskaya et al., 2015)
Zmitrovich I.V., Stolyarskaya M.V. et al.; ed. Stolyarskaya M.V. — St Petersburg, ISBN 978-5-4386-0925-4
Annotated list of 806 species, north-east Leningrad Oblast (Lodeynopolsky District, middle taiga), not the whole subject and not the Karelian Isthmus. Chanterelle June–October, very frequent; porcini and pine porcini June–October; birch bolete June–September, very frequent; aspen bolete July–September; northern honey fungus (Armillaria borealis) August–September, layer usually short; saffron milk cap August–October, rather rare (1993 plot layer 2–15 October); true milk cap July–September. Morel is rare; 28 June 1993 mass on a burn is not a typical oblast harvest. Shubin’s Karelian calendar and Moscow handbooks are not copied.
Moscow Oblast(RU-MOS)
Season: August – October; Beginning; Peak; Ending BeginningPeakEnding
- Season
- August 25 – October 15
- Peak
- September 11 – October 10
- Confidence
- Approximate
Evidence
Autumn honey fungus (Armillaria / Armillariella mellea), not summer honey fungus. Fedorov 1990: late August or early September until frosts. Smirnyakov 1992: first in the 2nd decade of August, abundant mid-September through the 1st decade of October. Gorlenko 1986: September–October. Start 25 August; summer Kuehneromyces is not mixed into this product.
Sources
Mushroom-picker calendar for the central oblasts of European Russia (Smirnyakov, Koshcheev, 1992)
Smirnyakov Yu.I., Koshcheev A.K., Koshcheev A.A. — Sputnik gribnika
Appendix: decade calendar (May–October). Legend: 0 first fruiting bodies, “-” mass growth, х abundant fruiting, = warm autumn only. Does not name Moscow Oblast separately; “central oblasts” is the belt that includes it. A handbook, not a multi-year plot study.
Gorlenko M.V., Garibova L.V., Sidorova I.I. — Vsyo o gribakh
Monthly presence table (April–October) for the middle belt. Chanterelle VII–IX; porcini VI–X; birch bolete VI–IX; aspen bolete VI–X; autumn honey fungus IX–X (summer honey fungus is a separate VI–X row). No intra-month dates and no named oblast.
Species accounts: aspen bolete, birch bolete, autumn honey fungus (Fedorov, 1990)
Fedorov F.V. — Griby
Aspen bolete: second half of June to October. Birch bolete: end of May to late autumn. Autumn honey fungus (Armillariella mellea): late August or early September until stable frosts. The spruce porcini form (late July–third decade of August) is not all porcini. Geography is USSR/Russia forests, not the three MVP oblasts.
