Velvet Shank / Enoki

Flammulina velutipes

Forests, parks, gardens, roadsides, living and dying deciduous trees. Summer (rarely), autumn, winter (rarely).

Fruiting bodies medium-sized. Cap 3-10 cm across, when young domed, later flattened, with an umbo, smooth, slimy, chestnut-coloured, yellowish-brown, orange-brown, fading to yellow, yellowish. Gills crowded, fairly thick, white, yellowish, adnate. Stem 3-10x0.3-1.3 cm, cartilaginous, sometimes twisted, yellowish, yellowish-brownish near the gills, blackish-brown lower down, velvety. Flesh soft, yellowish, pleasant in taste, without a particular smell. Characteristic features: cap slimy, with a smooth surface, stem velvety. Grows in autumn, even in mild winters (when the air temperature is +5 °C), in small groups, on damaged parts of deciduous trees and shrubs. Edible, cultivated artificially in some countries. Very common.