Late‑summer rains drive one of Andorra’s best 2025 mushroom seasons

The 2025 mushroom season in Andorra proved unusually productive, ranking among the best in recent years. Generous late‑summer rains encouraged a strong early emergence of rovellons (saffron milk caps), ceps (porcini) and rossinyols (chanterelles), while larger fredolics appeared toward the end of the campaign.

Mycologist and researcher Manel Niell of Andorra Recerca i Innovació (AR+I) described the season as “one of the best years of the last five,” noting that although 2018 remains a reference year for total volume, this autumn brought especially robust yields for several sought‑after species. Niell attributed the good results to the weather pattern at the end of summer: September was notably wet, with the central FEDA station recording 113.1 mm of precipitation, roughly 20 mm more than September 2024. August also contributed some rainfall, helping to keep soils moist and sustain fungal development into the autumn.

Production held up while the ground remained humid, Niell said, but conditions shifted in October when rain largely ceased. Soil drying in parts of the country pushed fungi into wetter microhabitats and curtailed growth in drier spots, producing a patchy pattern of abundance across the principality.

Andorra’s varied orography amplified those differences. Sharp changes in altitude, the principality’s compact size and contrasts between shaded and sun‑exposed slopes create a mosaic of microclimates; some areas simply lacked the humidity needed for mushrooms to appear. Temperature swings and episodes of wind further influenced where and when species developed.

Overall, the combination of late‑summer precipitation and local climatic factors delivered a notably good season for foragers across much of Andorra, even as yields remained uneven in places where soils dried out or conditions were less favourable.