Velvet shank and enoki
Mushrooms with anticancer properties
The velvet shank can be found clustered on the dead and dying wood of deciduous trees, such as elm, ash, beech or oak. It has a bright orange cap and can be seen throughout winter.
It is also known as the ‘Winter Mushroom’ as it is one of the few mushrooms that can be seen throughout the winter months, right into early spring. The Latin name, Flammulina velutipes, refers to the bright orange, flame-like colour of the cap.
They are usually found in medium to large ‘tufted’ clusters on dead or decaying wood, favouring elm and oak. Their caps are a striking orange-brown colour (much lighter at the edges) and is quite shiny with a distinctly sticky/tacky surface texture.
The defining factor in identification of this mushroom lies in the examination of the stem. As the common name suggests, it’s ‘shank’ or stem has a smooth (and strangely satisfying) velvety feel, and the colour is a very dark brown/black — lighter at the top (closer to the cap) and darker at the base. Other identification factors regarding the tough stem is the lack of any ring, and when cut in half horizontally, it will show different coloured, thick layers with a small central hollow.
This mushroom is cultivated in Japan and known as the Enokitake where due to growing conditions is a small, thin but long, white mushroom with a small cap. Enoki mushrooms are found in grocery stores and are also called enokitake. Enoki is white, long-stemmed, and tiny-capped. Extracts from this mushroom show exceptionally high anti-cancer activity, and an epidemiology survey of Flammulina velutipes farmers in Japan found that the mushroom farmers had lower rates of cancer deaths than people who were not involved in mushroom farming.
Simple sauteing with garlic and winter herbs such as cow parsley is delicious. Sharper flavours such as bittercress, sea radish or wood sorrel can work well against their malty sweetness. These mushrooms are considered tasty, with a sweet, mealy flavour. Enoki stems and caps are edible and have a pleasant taste.
Velvet shank can be confused with:
1) Sulphur tufts that don’t have the velvety brown to the stem and can’t withstand the winter cold as well, they also have a sulphurous colour to them.
2) Galerina marginata, is a species of extremely poisonous mushroom-forming. It is a wood-rotting fungus that grows predominantly on decaying conifer wood. The fruit bodies of the mushroom have brown to yellow-brown caps that fade in colour when drying. The gills are brownish and give a rusty spore print.
References
Chao Zhao, Kun Zhao, Xiaoyan Liu,Yi-fan Huang and Bin Liu In Vitro Antioxidant and Antitumor Activities of Polysaccharides Extracted from the Mycelia of Liquid-Cultured Flammulina velutipes Food Sci. Technol. Res., 19 (4), 661–667, 2013
Chen P, Yong Y, Gu Y, Wang Z, Zhang S, Lu L. Comparison of antioxidant and antiproliferation activities of polysaccharides from eight species of medicinal mushrooms. Int J Med Mushrooms. 2015;17(3):287–95. doi: 10.1615/intjmedmushrooms.v17.i3.80. PMID: 25954912.
