Velvet Foot

not listed

not listed

not listed

Velvet Foot is a late season, cold weather, gill mushroom. It is extremely widespread, occurring throughout Europe, across North America, and in Japan. It is fairly common in Minnesota. It appears in the late fall in deciduous and mixed forests and woodlands. It grows in dense clusters on stumps, logs, and living trunks of hardwoods, especially elm. It obtains its nutrients from both dead wood (saprobic) and living wood (parasitic).

The cap is ⅜″ to 2 ¾″ in diameter and convex at first with the margins curved down and in. As it matures it becomes broadly convex or flat, sometimes with a raised “bump” in the center. The upper surface is smooth and hairless, and has no scales. It is slimy when wet, viscid when moist or fresh, dry only in arid conditions. The cap color is somewhat variable. It may be reddish-brown, yellowish-brown, orangish-brown, or yellowish-orange. It fades with age and in dry weather.

The stalk is tough, smooth, slender, ¾″ to 4″ long, and⅛″ to ½″ thick. It bends at the base then grows straight up. It is pale and colorless or yellowish to orangish-brown at first. As it ages it develops a dense covering of dark velvety hairs beginning at the base and progressing upwards. There is no ring around the stalk.

The flesh is thin and white or yellowish. It is edible but due to its similarity in appearance to the poisonous Funeral Bell (Galerina marginata) it should be avoided. Making matters worse, Funeral Bell often grows in close proximity to Velvet Foot.

The gills are closely spaced and white to pale yellow. They are broadly to narrowly attached to the stalk, sometimes notched at the point of attachment.

The spore print is white.

Deciduous and mixed forests and woodlands

Late fall

A Japanese cultivar of Velvet Foot, known as Enokitake or Enoki, is white and grows in dense clusters. It has very small caps and very long slender stalks. To achieve this, it is grown in complete darkness in a carbon dioxide rich environment. Producing more than 300,000 tons per year at the end of the twentieth century, it is one of the six most actively cultivated mushrooms in the world.

In 1993, Velvet Foot mushrooms were grown on the space shuttle to test the effects of zero gravity. As expected, the mushrooms grew in all directions.

Sources

4, 24, 26, 29, 30, 77.

Very widespread and fairly common

Velvet Foot species was formerly classified as Collybia velutipes. In 1951 it was given its own genus Flammulina based on the viscid cap and sterile cells in the gills. At that time it was once thought that the new genus consisted of just this species, F. velutipes. Following detailed studies of collected specimens worldwide there are now twelve species recognized in the genus.

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Location: Cass County

Location: Closest nearby town is Sunburg, MN. In Kandiyohi County.

Location: Cuyuna Country Recreational Area, Crow Wing County