Enokitake, Enoki

Also enokidake, enoki mushroom, winter mushroom

Everything about enokitake is perky and pale. Even its name—a romanized form of the Japanese enoki (Chinese hackberry), a tree on which the mushroom (take) grows—sounds light. Enokitake is about as far from the wild as fungi get. It is therefore surprising to learn that in the natural habitat, “ Flammulina velutipes is easily told by its velvety brown stalk, sticky cap, cheerful color, and growth on wood,” according to David Arora, who (in Mushrooms Demystified) calls it velvet foot or velvet stem, from its species name, velutipes.