Mushroom calendar

When Morels Grow in California

Updated on October 28, 20261 min read
When they are found

When they are born the morels In California.

Morels in California are mostly found from February to June, with peaks in May.

Morels

January: 3.3% of observationsGFebruary: 7.4% of observationsFMarch: 19% of observationsMApril: 25% of observationsAMay: 25% of observations25%MJune: 7.0% of observationsGJuly: 1.9% of observationsLAugust: 0.8% of observationsASeptember: 0.5% of observationsSOctober: 1.6% of observationsONovember: 3.1% of observationsNDecember: 5.8% of observationsD
Month-by-month observation rate. May stands out, as the month with the most documented finds.

On 1,900 observations documented public in California from 2011 to 2025.

California is not following the wave

While in other states the season moves from south to north in two months, here it lasts from February to June: it's the longest season in the United States. It depends on the mountain, which shifts the months forward as you climb, and on the morels that grow in forests burned the year before.

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Because every year is different

  • The season opens with rain: after a heavy rain, with the soil still warm, it takes one or two weeks.
  • In mountain It begins earlier and ends earlier than on the plain, and the same is true for the northern slopes.
  • A'dry summer It pushes it forward, sometimes by weeks. A mild autumn lengthens it.

The calendar says the months. Which day, in your forest, this year, the rain that fell there tells you: MushScout follows it day by day and tells you when it's time.

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Morels in other states

Data: GBIF.org — GBIF.org, observations with coordinates 2011-2025, counts by month (facet). The observations say when people have documented a find, not how many mushrooms there were.

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