Winter mushroom
Scientific name: Flammulina velutipes
Synonyms: Winter mushroom, Enokitake, Enoki mushroom, The golden mushroom (Thailand), Nametake, Yuki-motase, Jin Zhen Gu
Natural habitat: Enokitake is widely spread all over the planet. The favourite substrate is hardwood. The natural fruiting season for Enoki is from late fall to early winter, thereofre in some Regions it is called 'Winter mushroom'.
Appropriate substrate: Hardwood (most suitable: oak, beech, birch, alder, poplar, aspen, willow)
Usage: Edible mushroom
The Winter mushroom/Enokitake has a long tradition in Asian cuisine. Enokitake produces small but very delicious fruiting bodies. The fruiting bodies have a diameter of 2-10 cm, the stem is 3-8 cm long. Enokitake produces white spores. It can be found in the cold and moderate climate zones on the northern hemisphere, e.g., China, Siberia, Asia Minor, Europe, North America and Japan; on the southern hemisphere in Australia.
Cultivation of Enokitake has a long tradition in China and was documented for the first time around 800 A.D. As soon as the fruiting bodies had grown to their full size, the cultivators of that time rubbed them on wood logs. With a bit of luck there was a good harvest in the year after. However, the use of spawn dowels, as practised today, is much more effective.
Taxonomy:
Class: Agaricomycetes
Order: Agaricales
Family: Physalacriaceae
Genus: Flammulina
Species: F. velutipes
Spores: white, ellipsoid, spore size of cultivated strains 6-8 x 3-4 µ, European wildtypes make spores 8-9 x 4,5-6 µ