Protected mushrooms: what not to pick

What the law says

Annex 1 lists strictly protected species, Annex 2 partially protected species, Annex 3 partially protected species that may be harvested (with the method of harvesting) and Annex 4 protection zones (lichens only). For wild protected fungi (strictly and partially) it is forbidden, among other things, to deliberately destroy, pick or damage them, to destroy their habitats and to harvest or collect them (§ 6); strict protection also bans keeping, possessing, selling, offering for sale, exchanging, giving away, importing and exporting them. The regulation does NOT make a general exception for picking partially protected species for your own use: the species in Annex 3 (morels: common, conical, thick-footed, half-free and tall; hen of the woods; umbrella polypore; chicken of the woods; chaga) may be harvested only “by picking the fruiting bodies by hand”, by those holding a permit from the regional director for environmental protection or the General Directorate for Environmental Protection (GDOŚ) (§ 7(2)(a)). Morels are protected only as “specimens growing outside gardens, horticultural crops, forest nurseries and green spaces”: morels from a garden, a nursery or a green space are not protected.

Other protected species that foragers know (not in the atlas): royal bolete and rooting bolete, Suillus tridentinus and lion’s mane (strict protection); coral tooth fungus and Hericium alpestre, old man of the woods, parasitic bolete, orange knight, Suillus flavidus and Suillus sibiricus, and siedzuń dębowy (partial protection).