Flammulina velutipes (Curtis) Singer 1951
Flammulina velutipes, the ‘Velvet Foot’ mushroom is a pale, long-stemmed Enoki mushoom is the cultivated form preferred by Japanese. In Europe this mushroom is considered inedible, but it is eaten in N.A. It is apparently rarer than Hypholoma capnoides (edible) and Hypholoma fasiculare (inedible and toxic), though it is fairly common here in the fall. It can sometimes be found throughout the year.
In 1993 cultures of Flammulina velutipes were flown on the Space Shuttle ‘Columbia’ to determine how the mushrooms would handle low gravity. Like many wood-inhabiting mushrooms, Flammulina velutipes typically bends its stem near the base, then grows straight up, resulting in a cap that is more or less parallel to the ground - so that spores will fall easily from the gills. Aboard the space shuttle, however, the mushrooms lost their balance, growing out of a simulated tree trunk at all angles. It is in the Physalacriaceae family in the Agaricales order.