What to forage in September
September is the richest month of the foraging year. Orchard and hedgerow fruit is everywhere — apples, crab apples, rose hips, hawthorn and rowan berries — the nuts begin to drop, and the woods fill with fungi: beefsteak on the oaks, porcini and other boletes pushing up through the leaf litter. If you forage only one month, make it this one. Almost every habitat is worth walking, from old orchards and hedge lines to broadleaf and mixed woodland. With so much on offer it is tempting to take more than you can use, so gather what you will actually eat, leave the rest, and give the wildlife its share of the harvest.
New in September
Just coming into season — their harvest window opens this month.
Malus domestica
A garden and orchard cultivar of the domestic apple, raised in West Virginia in the 1890s and now one of the most widely planted eating apples in Britain.
Caution: Skin and flesh are safe raw and there are no dangerous lookalikes among apples.
View field guide entry →Rosa
Rose hips are the fruit of wild rose plants, typically developing after the flowers bloom. Rose hips are commonly found in temperate regions, particularly in hedgerows, woodlands, and scrub areas.
View field guide entry →Malus sylvestris
A small, twiggy hedgerow tree, often armed with short spine-tipped side shoots, carrying hard yellow-green apples 2–4 cm across that are usually flushed dull red on one side.
View field guide entry →Crataegus
Hawthorn berries are small, red fruits produced by the hawthorn tree. Hawthorn berries are commonly found in hedgerows, woodlands, and scrublands across the UK.
View field guide entry →Castanea sativa
A large deciduous tree with long, glossy, saw-toothed leaves and bark that spirals into deep ridges on old trunks. Prefers light, acidic, free-draining soils and does poorly on lime or waterlogged ground.
Caution: The burrs are sharply spiny; pick with gloves or roll them open underfoot.
View field guide entry →Juglans
Walnuts are round, hard-shelled nuts with a rich, earthy flavour. Grows in well-drained, fertile soil and is typically found in woodlands or cultivated orchards.
Caution: Walnut trees produce juglone, which can be toxic to certain plants, and the husks of the fruit can be irritating to the skin.
View field guide entry →Sorbus
Rowan berries are bright red fruits produced by the rowan tree. Rowan trees are commonly found in woodlands, uplands, and along hedgerows across the UK.
Caution: Rowan berries are mildly toxic if consumed raw, causing stomach discomfort.
View field guide entry →Tilia
Linden, also known as the lime tree (unrelated to citrus limes), is a deciduous tree with heart-shaped leaves and fragrant yellowish flowers. Common in UK parks, woodlands, and along roadsides.
View field guide entry →
At their peak in September
In the middle of their season and at their best right now.
Fistulina hepatica
A thick, tongue- or liver-shaped bracket that grows singly low on the trunks of old oaks, usually within a metre or two of the ground.
Caution: Edible and not known to be poisonous, but the flesh is high in oxalic acid, so it is sour and best eaten in small amounts; anyone prone to kidney stones or gout may want to avoid it or seek advice.
View field guide entry →Boletus edulis
A heavy, solid bolete with a smooth tan to chestnut cap that looks faintly greasy when damp and often keeps a paler rim, over a stout swollen stem marked with a fine pale network near the top.
Caution: No known toxins, but boletes are better cooked than raw, and old waterlogged caps or ones riddled with maggot tunnels can cause stomach upset.
View field guide entry →Malus domestica
A small spreading tree with grey scaly bark and clusters of white, pink-flushed blossom in spring. Planted in orchards, gardens, allotments and churchyards, and widely naturalised from discarded cores along railway embankments, road verges, hedgerows and waste ground throughout Britain and Ireland.
Caution: The flesh is safe raw.
View field guide entry →Agaricus campestris
A white, dry-capped mushroom of open grassland, usually 3–10 cm across, domed then flattening, with a silky to faintly scaly surface. Saprotrophic in nutrient-rich short grassland — grazed pasture, meadows, lawns, playing fields and stabilised dunes — appearing in scattered troops or arcs a few days after rain.
Caution: Eat cooked and young; raw or in quantity it disagrees with some people.
View field guide entry →Rubus fruticosus
A scrambling, thorny shrub of the rose family that throws arching biennial canes over hedges, scrub and waste ground. Hedgerows, woodland edges and rides, scrub, railway banks, waste ground and neglected gardens, on almost any soil.
Caution: No part is toxic and the fruit needs no preparation, but pick above dog height and away from spray drift on arable field margins.
View field guide entry →Prunus domestica
A small deciduous tree or large shrub, usually 4–8 m, carrying oval to round fruit with a waxy bloom and a single flattened stone. Hedgerows, field margins, scrub, railway banks and abandoned orchards, often self-seeded from planted stock or spreading by suckers into thickets.
Caution: Ripe flesh is safe raw or cooked, but unripe fruit is astringent and can upset the stomach.
View field guide entry →Agaricus arvensis
A stout white grassland mushroom with a cap 8–20 cm across, dry and silky, often splitting into pale scale-like patches as it expands. Saprotrophic, fruiting in unimproved pasture, meadows, lawns, verges and dune grassland, often where livestock have grazed and sometimes in arcs or rings.
View field guide entry →Imleria badia
A brown bolete with a bay to deep chestnut cap, 4–15 cm across, matt and faintly velvety in dry weather but noticeably greasy after rain. Mycorrhizal with conifers, particularly Scots pine and spruce, and also with beech and oak.
Caution: Eat only cooked; like most boletes it is poorly tolerated raw.
View field guide entry →
Last chance in September
The window is closing — these are largely done once the month turns.
Laetiporus sulphureus
A bright sulphur-yellow to salmon-orange bracket that grows in overlapping fans and shelves from the trunks of living hardwoods, most often oak. Parasitic and then saprotrophic, causing a brown heart-rot inside standing hardwoods — oak most commonly, also sweet chestnut, willow, cherry and occasionally yew.
Caution: Always cook thoroughly; it is not eaten raw.
View field guide entry →Sambucus
Elderberry is a deciduous shrub or small tree known for its clusters of white flowers and dark purple to black berries. Elderberry grows in hedgerows, woodland edges, and wasteland, typically thriving in temperate climates with moist, well-drained soil.
Caution: Elderberries contain toxins when raw, particularly in the seeds, stems, and unripe berries.
View field guide entry →Prunus cerasifera
A small tree or large shrub, often the first blossom of the year: white five-petalled flowers open on green twigs in February or March, before or just as the leaves appear. Not native, but planted and naturalised in hedgerows, roadside verges, scrub, railway banks, parks and gardens.
Caution: The flesh is edible raw once soft; hard underripe fruit is sour and can be laxative in quantity.
View field guide entry →Rubus idaeus
A slender, upright bramble with biennial canes, pinnate leaves whose undersides are white-felted, and soft red aggregate fruit that lifts free of its core when ripe, leaving a thimble-shaped hollow.
Caution: Fruit is edible raw and has no toxic lookalike in Britain — the other native Rubus fruits are edible too, so a mix-up within the genus carries little consequence.
View field guide entry →Ficus carica
A deciduous shrub or low-branched small tree with thick, sandpapery leaves cut into three to five deep lobes, and smooth grey bark on stout greenish shoots.
View field guide entry →Humulus lupulus
A vigorous herbaceous climber that twines clockwise up hedges and scrub on rough, bristly stems, carrying paired, sharply toothed leaves lobed much like a grape vine's.
Caution: Cones and young shoots are eaten and brewed with, but handling quantities of ripe cones can bring on an itchy rash from the lupulin resin, so cover arms and hands.
View field guide entry →Prunus domestica syriaca
A small, often suckering plum tree carrying round golden-yellow fruit 2–3 cm across, usually blushed red on the sunniest cheek, with sweet dense flesh and a stone that lifts away cleanly. Not native.
Caution: The flesh is eaten raw or cooked with no special preparation.
View field guide entry →Mahonia aquifolium
A stiff evergreen shrub, usually knee to shoulder height, with pinnate leaves of glossy, spine-toothed leaflets that flush bronze in cold weather.
View field guide entry →
The buckets above are capped at the most-logged species. For everything in season this month, browse the full September list in the field guide →
What foragers actually logged in September
In September, foragers logged 6,099 finds — one of the busier months in the app. The species recorded most were Beefsteak Fungus (820), Chicken of the woods (771), Golden Delicious Apple (456), Porcini (370) and Apples (353). Counts are aggregated across all foragers, with no location or personal detail.
Log your own finds
The calendar is built from what foragers record in the app. It's free, with no account needed to browse.
