Enoki: Flammulina velutipes

Please picture the Enoki mushroom. You maybe picture a white mushroom with a slender body because that’s what they look like at the store. The enoki mushroom is different from other mushroom. But if you think that enoki sold in the stores are the original Enoki mushroom, they are not.

Enoki mushroom have been eaten by people since old times. So they have many names. Enoki mushroom is called Enokidake, Nametake, Namesusuki and Yukinosita in Japan. Many people call that white and slender mushroom is Enoki and put Enoki mushroom which are seasoned into bottle is Nametake.

Enoki mushroom’s scientific name is Flammulina velutipes. And they are one of kishimeji family (Tricholomataceae), such as shiitake mushroom and matsutake mushroom. They are kind of wood-rotting fungus.

Enoki mushroom are gregarious and parasitic on dead trees and stumps of deciduous trees or sprout up around them on ground after it rains well from early spring to late fall. And they can sprout up in snow so it is called Yukinosita.

Original Enoki mushroom are completely different in appearance from the store version. Original Enoki mushroom is normal mushroom shape. The cap of Enoki mushroom has a surface yellowish brown or dark brown and sliminess and first lamella is white then light brown, it becomes globular shape next grow horizontal. The stem of Enoki mushroom is yellowish brown or blackish brown and have short hair. Their smell is like iron rust.

Store Enoki mushroom is white at the whole. And the cap of there is much smaller than original and the stem is longer and slender than original. Why are store Enoki mushroom are different Original Enoki mushroom? The Enoki mushrooms in stores are grown by mushroom cultivation. And they are grown in no light, like bean sprouts. Fungi don’t need light to live and grow. But it is profitable on light to throw their spore to a long way. Because they grow to get to light, they are slender and long body.

If mushroom sprout up in your garden in winter, it may be Enoki mushroom . But most people don’t think they are Enoki mushroom. And if you try to teach them, many people would not believed. Why don’t they believe? I think that we are not interested in things they put into thier mouths.