Deadly
Deadly Galerina
Galerina marginata
Galerina has a ring or ring zone on a stem that is not velvety, and leaves a rusty brown spore print instead of white. It can fruit on wood in late fall at the same time. It contains amatoxins.
Velvet Foot
Flammulina velutipes
Edible
Also called velvet shank, winter mushroom, enoki.
Velvet foot is a small orange-brown mushroom that fruits in clusters on dead hardwood from late fall through winter, even after freezing. It is the wild form of enoki, and it overlaps in season and habitat with the deadly galerina.
The tell
Sticky orange-brown caps on dead hardwood in cold weather, on stems that turn dark brown and velvety from the base up.
Field marks
What to look at
Cap, underside and stem show in a photo. The spore print does not, and it is often the deciding check.
- Cap
- Convex to flat, 0.75 to 2 inches across. Orange-brown to reddish brown, often paler at the edge, smooth and slimy or sticky when wet.
- Underside
- Gills attached, fairly broad and spaced. White to pale yellow.
- Stem
- Tough and fairly slender. Pale yellow near the top and dark brown to blackish and finely velvety below, the dark zone spreading upward with age. No ring.
- Flesh
- Thin, whitish to yellowish. Smell mild.
- Spore print
- White.
- Size
- Cap 0.75 to 2 inches (2 to 5 cm); stem 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) tall.
Where and when
Where and when it grows
- Habitat
- In clusters on dead or dying hardwoods, especially elm, aspen, cottonwood and willow, on stumps, logs and wounds in standing trees.
- Grows on
- Dead or dying hardwood.
- Season
- Late fall through winter into early spring, fruiting during thaws.
- Range
- Across North America, with closely related Flammulina species in the West.
Lookalikes
What the velvet foot gets confused with
Each card says how to tell the two apart.
Edible when well cookedHoney Mushroom
Armillaria mellea
Honey mushrooms are larger, fruit earlier in the fall, have a ring on the stem, and lack the dark velvety stem base.
Toxic lookalikeSulphur Tuft
Hypholoma fasciculare
Sulphur tuft is sulfur yellow with greenish gills, leaves a purple-brown spore print, and has a smooth yellow stem.
Edibility
What the field guides say
Edible
Field guides list velvet foot as edible. The cultivated enoki sold in stores is the same species grown in the dark in bottles, which produces long, thin white stems and tiny caps. Guides stress the white spore print and velvety stem because deadly galerina, which contains amatoxins, grows on wood in the same cold months.
This page states what field guides record. It is not advice to eat, taste or handle anything, and a photo cannot settle edibility. If someone has eaten a wild mushroom that may be toxic, call poison control (1-800-222-1222 in the US) right away, before symptoms start: the deadliest species act hours later.
FAQ
Questions about the velvet foot
Is velvet foot the same as enoki?
Yes. Enoki is Flammulina velutipes grown in the dark at high carbon dioxide levels, which makes long white stems and tiny caps. Wild velvet foot has orange-brown caps and dark, velvety stems.
How do you tell velvet foot from deadly galerina?
Velvet foot leaves a white spore print and has a dark, velvety stem with no ring. Deadly galerina leaves a rusty brown spore print and usually has a ring or ring zone on a smooth, fibrous stem.
When does velvet foot grow?
From late fall through winter into early spring. It can freeze solid and resume growth during thaws, which is why it is called the winter mushroom.
Sources
Where these facts come from
- Flammulina velutipes
MushroomExpert.com
- Flammulina velutipes
Fungi Growing on Wood, Gary Emberger (MushroomExpert.com)
- Velvet Foot
Missouri Department of Conservation
- Flammulina velutipes
Index Fungorum
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