Flammulina velutipes

Enoki

Velvet shank is a wood-decay mushroom of temperate forests that fruits in clusters on dead and dying broadleaf wood through the coldest months, often after frost. The white, long-stemmed enoki sold in shops is now treated as a separate Asian species, F. filiformis, but both grow in the same way: colonise warm, then fruit cold. Home growers should expect wild-type velvet shank to have short, velvety dark stems and orange-brown caps when fruited in light.

Flammulina velutipes — Photo: Eric Steinert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

At home, aim for

Day Cool-growingTargets in Plantistry

Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry

Humidity Very humid airBand in Plantistry

Light ShadeDLI and PPFD in Plantistry

Expects a seasonal rest

Where it grows wild

A saprotroph and weak parasite on dead or dying hardwood, especially elm, and also ash, beech, oak, willow and poplar. It fruits in dense clusters on stumps, logs, and wounds on living trunks, from late autumn to early spring, and its fruit bodies survive freezing and resume growth after a thaw.

Mainly lowland to mid-elevation temperate forest. Few records carry an elevation.

EuropeNorth AmericaTemperate Asia

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates

✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it

✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light

✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it

✓ Substrate and airflow

✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.