Madonie mushrooms and truffles: seasons, rules and dishes

In the Madonie mushrooms are picked mainly in autumn, in the chestnut, oak and beech woods between Castelbuono and Piano Battaglia, and in spring on the high pastures, where the rare basilisk mushroom grows. To pick them you need the regional permit, and inside the Park the Park Authority’s rules on hours, quantities and protected species also apply. If you just want to eat them, the Funghi Fest in Castelbuono, at the end of October, is the place to be.

At a glance

• Season: autumn for most species; April-June for the basilisk mushroom.
• Permit: regional permit (regional law of 1 February 2006, no. 3) plus the Park rules.
• Limits in the Park: 2.5 kg a day for non-residents, 4 kg for residents of the Park’s municipalities; from 6 am until one hour before sunset.
• Protected species: Pleurotus nebrodensis, banned in Zone A.
• Truffles: summer truffle from 1 May to 30 November, bianchetto from 15 January to 30 April.
• Festival: Funghi Fest in Castelbuono, a weekend at the end of October.

When to find mushrooms in the Madonie

Autumn is the main season. The pages on the northern trails, such as the Bosco di Castelbuono and the trail from Battaglietta to Piano Sempria, say so: in October and November the chestnuts and beech woods change colour and it is mushroom time.

In spring, between April and June, the basilisk mushroom appears on the mountain pastures. It is the most famous species of the Madonie and also the most fragile, and we cover it below.

Years vary a lot and depend on rainfall: no date is guaranteed.

The species that matter

The basilisk mushroom (Pleurotus nebrodensis)

The funcia di basiliscu is an ivory-white mushroom, firm and fleshy, with the stem attached to one side. It grows on the remains of roots and stems of Prangos ferulacea, a plant of the carrot family that dominates the mountain pastures. It appears between April and June.

In Sicily it lives only in the Madonie; outside the island it has been found on a few mountains in Greece. The page of the IUCN specialist group lists it as Endangered. In Sicily there are fewer than ten sites and fewer than 150 mature individuals, declining because of heavy picking, driven by its high price and flavour.

The rules are clear. The Park Authority regulation bans picking it in Zone A and, in the rest of the Park, bans specimens under 3 centimetres, that is those that have not yet released their spores. The IUCN itself notes that the ban is often ignored: if you find one, leave it where it is.

It is also cultivated. A Sicilian cultivation project ended in 2002 and the mushroom has been grown in small pilot units, with the same qualities as the wild one (IUCN).

Ferula and elaeoselinum mushrooms

Two varieties of king oyster mushroom also grow in the Madonie: Pleurotus eryngii var. ferulae, linked to giant fennel (Ferula communis), and var. elaeoselini, linked to Elaeoselinum asclepium. A group of Italian universities, including Palermo, collected them in autumn 2023 near Collesano, at 559 metres, for a study published in Frontiers in Chemistry in 2024.

Other species in the regulation

The Park regulation names other species with size limits:

Species	Common name	Rule in the Park
Boletus edulis and group	porcini	specimens with caps under 3 cm banned
Calocybe gambosa	St George’s mushroom	specimens with caps under 2 cm banned
Cantharellus cibarius	chanterelle	specimens with caps under 2 cm banned
Amanita caesarea	Caesar’s mushroom	banned at the closed-egg stage, maximum 1 kg a day

The rules for picking mushrooms

The Sicilian Region permit

In Sicily picking is governed by regional law of 1 February 2006, no. 3, whose text is published by ISPRA. The main points:

• you need the personal regional permit, issued by your municipality of residence and valid throughout Sicily;
• to get it you must attend and pass a course of at least 15 hours, one third of it practical, led by a mycologist;
• the amateur permit allows up to 4 kg a day, the professional one up to 12 kg;
• people who do not live in Sicily apply to the municipality where they pick: the permit lasts one year and allows up to 4 kg a day;
• children under 14 may only pick with an adult holding a permit, and their mushrooms count towards the adult’s limit;
• picking is banned at night.

The law set the fees at 30 euros a year for the amateur permit and for non-residents and 100 euros for the professional one, with updates every five years. Ask the municipality for the current amount.

The Madonie Park Authority rules

The Park regulation applies “where it does not conflict” with the regional law. It adds its own rules:

• hours: every day from 6 am until one hour before sunset;
• quantity: 2.5 kg a day for people who do not live in the Park’s municipalities, 4 kg for residents and for property owners in the Park;
• how: whole mushroom, picked by hand or with a knife, roughly cleaned on the spot;
• containers: rigid and perforated, never plastic bags or closed sacks;
• banned: rakes and hooks, decomposed mushrooms, destroying the ones you do not want;
• private land: if the land is fenced or marked with no-picking signs, only the owner may pick.

The regulation also provides for a Park Authority permit. Before you set off, call the Park Authority or your municipality to find out which authorisation is needed today: the two sets of rules overlap.

Safety and checking mushrooms

To sell wild mushrooms, the Park regulation requires a check by a mycology inspector and a certificate from the health authority. To eat them, if you are not an expert, have them checked by a mycologist before cooking: ask the provincial health authority (ASP) whether a mushroom-checking desk is open and bring your whole harvest, not just the doubtful ones.

In autumn it gets dark early in the mountains. Before heading into the woods, check the weather forecast for the Madonie and the advice in our guide to mountain safety.

Truffles of the Madonie

There are truffles in the Madonie too. The Park regulation allows two species, with different calendars:

Species	Common name	Picking allowed
Tuber aestivum	summer truffle, scorzone	1 May-30 November
Tuber borchii (or albidum)	bianchetto, marzolo	15 January-30 April

To hunt them you need an authorisation from the Park Authority, obtained after an exam before a committee. Hunting is only allowed with a trained dog, digging with a small spade only where the dog has started, and holes must be filled in. It is forbidden to pick unripe truffles and to hunt from one hour before sunset until 7 am.

Some facts on their presence. In 2006 the mycology laboratory of the University of Palermo planted an experimental truffle orchard with a farm in the Park, with hazel and downy oak seedlings inoculated with summer truffle and black truffle. In April 2023 Balarm reported the discovery of bianchetto in a pine wood on Gangi’s municipal estates, during an activity of the town’s agricultural school.

Where to eat mushrooms

The Funghi Fest in Castelbuono

The mushroom festival of the Madonie takes place in Castelbuono over a weekend at the end of October, from Friday to Sunday. There are stalls along Via Sant’Anna, tastings of mushroom dishes in Piazza Castello at lunch and dinner, walks in the woods and music in the evening. It is organised by Promomadonie and PromoCastelbuono; each year’s dates and programme are on the Funghi Fest page.

Other autumn festivals

Period	Festival	Town
end of October	Festa dei Sapori Madoniti d’Autunno	Petralia Sottana
November	Sapori d’Autunno	Isnello

The other food festivals of the year are in the Madonie food festival calendar.

In village restaurants

In autumn, look for mushrooms on the menus of mountain trattorias. To find them, start from the village pages: where to eat in Castelbuono, where to eat in Petralia Sottana, where to eat in Isnello. The guide what to eat in the Madonie explains which towns to choose for which dish.

A weekend of mushrooms and woods

If you come at the end of October, you can combine the festival with a walk. On Saturday morning go up into the Bosco di Castelbuono or do the loop from Case La Pazza to Piano Sempria; in the afternoon head down to town for the tastings. To see the colours of the woods, read where to find the beech woods in autumn, and for the night see where to stay in Castelbuono.