History

• Natural origin: Flammulina velutipes is a lignicolous saprophytic mushroom that proliferates in the temperate and cold regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike most mushrooms, it fruits from late autumn to the dead of winter, braving frost and snow. In nature, it grows in dense tufts on the dead or weakened wood of broadleaf trees, with a marked preference for elms, hackberries (hence its Japanese name Enoki, which refers to the hackberry tree), and willows.

• Earliest traces: Consumed since antiquity in Asia for its mild flavor, it is one of the oldest cultivated mushrooms. As early as 800 AD in Japan, it was inoculated onto wooden logs placed outdoors during winter. Its cultivation was therefore dependent on the climate, and the harvested mushroom retained its natural wild appearance: short, brown, and stocky, with a very tough, rough stem that had to be discarded.

• Present day: The Enoki is the mushroom that literally invented modern bottle cultivation in Japan during the 1920s and 1930s. Mycologists figured out how to force its morphology by manipulating its growing environment. Today, it is cultivated in total darkness (which blocks pigmentation and makes it pure white) and in a CO2-saturated atmosphere with a plastic collar around the jar. Desperately seeking oxygen, the mushroom stretches upward, developing an extremely long, thin, and tender stem, while its cap remains tiny. It is a masterpiece of environmental manipulation!