Enokitake=Velvet Shank=Vintersopp

One of the hardiest fungi appears often midwinter in mild winters.  It is the velvet shank (vintersopp in Norwegian, meaning winter fungus; Flammulina velutipes). The recent mild weather has brought on a flush of this edible species  with many reports on Norwegian fungi groups, and I too found a small group in my garden the other day. It’s difficult to believe that this is the same fungi as Enokitake or Enoki, sometimes offered in supermarkets and one of the most popular cultivated fungi in the Far East (see the last picture below). The cultivated fungi are long and white as they are grown in the dark in an enriched CO2 environment which gives longer stalks .

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