Mushroom Monday: Velvet Foot Mushrooms

Mushroom Monday: Velvet Foot Mushrooms

Today’s Mushroom Monday mushroom is the Velvet Foot Mushroom (Flammulina velutipes).

The velvet foot mushroom is an interesting mushroom because of how it feels, what it looks like, and its relationship to a mushroom you might find in your next meal.

How they feel

Velvet foot mushrooms have caps that can be slimy or sticky.  This is one of the ways they can be identified.  This slimy feel comes from a mucus on them that helps protect them against freezing as they are a kind of mushroom that can be found in winter.

What they look like

The velvet foot mushroom has a cap that is yellow/orange brown in color with closely spaced gills that are whitish/yellow.  The stalk of the mushroom is two to three inches tall and is brown at the bottom with a velvet texture (this is where the common name comes from).  Higher up, the stalk is smoother and more yellowish.  The caps are flat or slightly convex and are one to two inches across.

Velvet foot mushrooms are saprophytic (they consume dead or decaying organic matter) and can be found in groups on wood such as logs from hardwood deciduous trees.

The velvet foot mushroom looks very similar to Galerina marginata which has the common name Deadly Galerina.  Galerina marginata, as the common name would suggest, is toxic.

Their relationship to a cultivated mushroom

There is a mushroom called Enoki that you might find in grocery stores and can be found in Asian and other dishes.  The ones you might find in stores or dishes are long and white with small caps.  In the past, it was thought that velvet foot mushrooms and the enokis in stores were the same species (but they looked different because they were grown under different conditions).  Research from 2018 though indicated that the store ones that are cultivated in Asia are a different species from those found in the wild in Europe and North America: Flammulina filiformis instead of Flammulina velutipes.  Flammulina velutipes are still sometimes referred to as enokis though as a common name.

If you liked learning about velvet foot mushrooms, check out our other Mushroom Monday posts and follow us on social media to keep up.