Velvet shank
Flammulina velutipes · 冬菇
Common泡头菌科🔥 Edible With Preparation
Sources report it requires expert processing before it can be eaten; cases of poisoning from improper handling have been recorded.
The same species can be described differently across regions and stages of maturity, and countless look-alike species cannot be told apart by eye. Never use the information on this page to judge whether a real mushroom is safe to eat.
How to Tell
- Cap small, orange-yellow, and sticky
- Stem dark brown, densely covered in velvety short hairs
- Clusters on dead hardwood in winter, no ring
ID notes are compiled by AI from public sources, not reviewed by a mycologist, for learning only — never a basis for foraging.
Basics
- Family
- 泡头菌科
- Hymenium
- Gills
- Grows On
- Wood
- How Big
- 2–7 cm (cap diameter)
- Encounter Rate
- Common
- Habitat
- Dead hardwood trunks, often fruiting in snow
Easily Confused With
Funeral bellVelvet shank has a dark brown velvety stem and no ring; funeral bell has a membranous ring on the stem.
EnokiWild caps yellow-brown and sticky, unlike the slender white cultivated form sold in storesFun Fact
This is the wild form of enoki: a sticky, orange-brown cap and a stem with a dark velvety base, able to thaw out after freezing and keep growing.