Ceps

Recognising ceps

Four boletes with white pores, often sold together:

• the Bordeaux cep or porcino (Boletus edulis), light brown cap with a white edge;
• the summer cep (B. reticulatus, formerly aestivalis), matt, often cracked cap, net pattern over the whole stem;
• the bronze cep or black cep (B. aereus), brown-black cap, rather southern, under oaks and sweet chestnuts;
• the pine cep (B. pinophilus), mahogany cap, in the mountains and under pines.

Shared signature: white pores that turn yellow-green with age, a swollen stem decorated with a fine net pattern, white flesh that does not turn blue when cut.

Look-alikes

Simple rule: white to yellow pores, flesh that does not change colour, mild taste. At the slightest doubt, leave it where it is.

Habitat: where to look

The cep is mycorrhizal: it lives in association with the roots of a living tree and never grows far from it. Look first for the right tree, then for the right spot.

Under which trees

• Broadleaves: oaks, beeches, sweet chestnuts.
• Conifers: spruces, firs, pines (Scots and maritime).
• Dense Douglas fir plantations are reputed to be unfavourable.
• Avoid woods that have just been clear-felled or heavily thinned: forest management studies show that production collapses there for years. Prefer mature stands that have not been disturbed.

Terrain

• From lowland to mountain, depending on the species (the pine cep mostly in the mountains). The higher you go, the earlier the season starts and ends.
• Pickers mainly report slopes that are well exposed to the sun and sheltered from the wind, after a spell of little sunshine. This is not a measured rule: the site does not use it.

Soil

• Rather acidic, well-drained soils (sandy silt under the oak wood studied in Galicia). Avoid waterlogged hollows.
• A healthy litter of leaves or needles is better than a dense thicket.

Microsites: where to look

• Woodland edges, clearings and banks lined with trees, track and firebreak verges: you often find more there than right at the foot of the trunk.
• Dense, poorly lit undergrowth (young spruce plantations) also produces.
• Young ceps hide under leaves or needles: look for small bumps in the ground.
• A spot that has produced generally produces again, year after year.

Season and triggers

The summer cep appears from summer onwards after warm thunderstorms. The big flushes take place from late summer to autumn, roughly one to two weeks after a marked rainy spell (in the Italian study cited below, days with 20 mm of rain or more), when temperatures come back down. A heatwave after the rain can stop everything. At altitude, the season starts and ends earlier.