Summer cep

How to recognise it: summer cep

1. 1

   Suede-like, matt cap, cracked in dry weather

2. 2

   Network paler than the background, usually over the whole stem

3. 3

   Pores white → yellow → olive, unchanging when pressed

4. 4

   Fruits early (from May), under oaks and beeches

Description

Cap

Large, 6–25(30) cm, light or grey-brown, ochre; surface matt, finely suede-like, cracking into patches in dry weather.

Tubes and pores

Tubes white, then yellow to olive-green; pores fine, do not change colour when pressed.

Stem

Light brown or grey-brown, covered over all or most of its length with a raised, paler (white, later brownish) network; barrel-shaped when young.

Flesh

White, firm when young, later spongy, brownish under the cuticle; does not change colour.

Smell and taste

Smell pleasant, dried mushroom intensely aromatic; taste mild, nutty.

Where and when it grows

Warm broadleaf and mixed forests, parks, pond banks; on near-neutral soils. More common in the lowlands than in the mountains.

Most often with: oak, beech, hornbeam, lime

Where are conditions good today?

Look-alikes: what it can be mistaken for

• 

  Bitter bolete Inedible medium risk

  The bitter bolete (called “szatan”, “satan”, in Polish) is very similar, especially when young with white pores. Differences: the bitter bolete has a distinct, dark brown, wide-meshed network on the stem, pores that turn pink with age, a pink spore print and an extremely bitter taste (touch a tiny piece with your tongue and spit it out). It is not dangerously poisonous, but a single fruit body ruins the whole dish. On the bitter bolete the network is darker than the stem, on the summer cep it is paler.

• 

  Porcini Edible low risk

  The porcini has a smooth, not suede-like cap and a network mainly on the upper part of the stem. Both are edible.

In the kitchen

Like the porcini: drying, soups, sauces, frying, pickling. Older fruit bodies have spongy flesh.

Protection and sale

• Species protection: the species is not protected.
• Sale: there is no clear entry for it on the list of mushrooms approved for sale. Not listed separately on the Ministry of Health (MZ) list. The list includes “borowik szlachetny (prawdziwek – all varieties)”, and grzyby.pl states that all varieties of prawdziwek (including the summer cep) are permitted – formally, however, it is now a separate species, so its status remains ambiguous.

Where you may pick mushrooms →