Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes

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Velvet Shank

Velvet Shank on beech log

I wasn’t going to write about another fungus straight after yesterday’s piece on the Shaggy Inkcap but I was showing some people around the Grapes Hill Community Garden this morning when we spotted some fungi growing from a beech log in the lawn.

One of the visitors, Jon, knows his fungi and identified them as Velvet Shank, Flammulina velutipes.

Velvet Shank is a new find for me but it is common and is found on the dead stumps of deciduous trees in late autumn and winter, later than most other fungi. Elm is said to be a particular favourite, though that may be partly due to the number of dead elms in recent years, due to Dutch elm disease. Unlike many fungi, Velvet Shank is frost tolerant and the fruiting body can survive being frozen solid.

Velvet Shank is edible, but we didn’t try it as the specimens were a bit past it. According to John Wright (in “Mushrooms”, River Cottage Handbook No. 1, Bloomsbury 2007) the flavour is excellent and he describes it as “sweet and malty”.

Velvet Shank

Velvet Shank

Our specimens had slimy caps, which Jon demonstrated by putting the fungus on the palm of his hand and showing us that it didn’t fall off even when held upside down. This sliminess is a diagnostic feature, especially in damp weather.

Read more on John Wright’s website and in the Foraging Guide.

Enokitake mushrooms don’t look like Velvet Shank but they are cultivars of Flammulina velutipes and may be seen in packets in food shops, and on Norwich Market.

See my more recent blog post on Winter fungi for some more photos of Velvet Shank.

Shaggy Inkcap, Coprinus comatus

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Shaggy Inkcap in Felbrigg Woods

Shaggy Inkcap in Felbrigg Woods

In early November last year we were walking in the woods at Felbrigg Hall in North Norfolk and found a lovely crop of Shaggy Inkcap fungi, Coprinus comatus, in an area of Sweet Chestnut woodland.

It is a very distinctive species that is easy to identify and rather common, occuring in autumn in grassy areas, such as roadsides and in parks.

Unlike Chicken of the Woods, the Shaggy Inkcap (a. k. a. Lawyer’s Wig) isn’t one of my favourite fungi. John Wright (in “Mushrooms”, River Cottage Handbook No. 1, Bloomsbury 2007) describes the taste as “boiled polystyrene“. I think that’s a little unkind but the first time I tried Shaggy Inkcap I fried pieces in oil and they were slimy and pretty tasteless and I wasn’t at all impressed.

But there were so many Shaggy Inkcaps that we decided to give it another try and that evening we fried slices in a little butter and the result was much more satisfactory and definitely worth repeating. If I find a good crop of Shaggy Inkcaps again, I will definitely eat some of them.

As well as the choice of butter instead of oil, I think the condition of the fungi was important – we chose very firm, fresh specimens. Older inkcaps deliquesce (what a lovely word), going pinkish then black before dissolving in an inky puddle full of spores. While you can use the black puddle as ink, older inkcaps are unsuitable to eat.

The Common Inkcap, Coprinopsis artramentaria, is a close relative and is edible but alcohol should not be consumed for up to 72 hours after taking it.

When we drink alcohol, it is broken down into acetaldehyde in the liver. Acetaldehyde is then broken down into harmless acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Unfortunately Common Ink Caps contain a compound called coprine, an inhibitor of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, leading to an accumulation of acetaldehyde. This gives us the equivalent of a really bad hangover and symptoms can include facial reddening, nausea, vomiting, malaise agitation, palpitations and tingling in limbs.

I like alcohol too much to have eaten the Common Inkcap. And since a study has shown that (admittedly large) doses of coprine can cause testicular lesions in rats and dogs, I don’t think I’ll be trying Common Inkcaps any time soon.

Creating Grapes Hill Community Garden

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At the end of last year I put together a short film / slide show to celebrate the creation of Grapes Hill Community Garden in Norwich. Before September 2010 it was an unused area of tarmac, then the Grapes Hill Community Garden Group was awarded Lottery funding to create the garden.

At the start of 2011 the land was still a building site but we planted it up during the spring and the garden opened to the public on Saturday 2nd July 2011.

Visit the garden’s website: http://www.grapeshillcommunitygarden.org.