Flammulina velutipes, the velvet foot, velvet stem, velvet shank or wild enoki, is a species of gilled mushroom in the family Physalacriaceae. The species occurs in Europe and North America. Until recently Flammulina velutipes was considered to be conspecific with the Asian Flammulina filiformis, cultivated for food as "enokitake" or "golden needle mushroom", but DNA sequencing has shown that the two are distinct.

Habitat

Velvet shank is saprotrophic especially on dead or dying elm, as well as ash, beech and oak.

Taxonomy

The species was originally described from England by botanist William Curtis in 1782 as Agaricus velutipes. It was transferred to the genus Flammulina by Rolf Singer in 1951.