Community find

Velvet Shank

Flammulina velutipes

Group

gilled mushroom

Season

Late autumn through winter, and sometimes into early spring, often fruiting even through snow and freezing temperatures.

Habitat

This mushroom is saprobic, growing in clusters or singly on dead or decaying hardwood logs and stumps, especially elm, oak, and beech. It can also appear on living but damaged trees.

Key characteristics

The cap is typically 2-10 cm wide, convex to flat, often sticky or slimy when moist, varying in color from yellow-orange to reddish-brown, often darker towards the center. The gills are attached, broad, and whitish to pale yellow. The stem is slender, tough, often velvety, darkening from yellow or orange at the top to dark brown or black at the base, and can be 3-10 cm long. It does not have a ring. The spore print is white to cream.

Look-alikes

Similar looking species include some other clustered brown-capped fungi. Galerina marginata (Deadly Galerina) is a deadly poisonous mushroom that can look superficially similar, particularly common on wood. Key differences include Galerina having a persistent ring on the stem, not growing in cold weather, and having a rusty brown spore print. Another similar species, though less dangerous, is the Winter Pholiota (Pholiota adiposa), which has yellowish to brownish caps covered in scales and a ring.

Ecological role

Flammulina velutipes is a saprobic fungus, playing a crucial role in the decomposition of dead hardwood, breaking down complex organic matter and recycling nutrients back into the ecosystem.