Come on, baby, light my fire

With its glossy orange cap, the 'little flame with a velvet foot' is a colourful addition to winter's mushroom bounty, but don't confuse it for a funeral bell, warns John Wright

- John Wright

THE depth of winter is not usually considered to be the best time to pick mushrooms, rather, very nearly the worst, being beaten only by March. Yet, they can be found. Some species linger beyond Christmas in milder parts of the country and I have seen both field blewits and trumpet chanterelles in January, the latter species also going by the telling name of 'winter chanterelle'. Sometimes, even the summer mushrooms appear, particularly those that grow on wood: oyster mushrooms, for example. There are, however, diminishingly few winter specialists.

The velvet shank is one such, seldom making an appearance outside the winter months. It is a splendid sight, often growing in massive tufts on dead or dying broadleaved trees. The caps are a bright orange, darkening in the middle and lin-2in in diameter when mature. The stems are pale yellow a little below the cap and a black velvet further down. Its Latinised name, Flammulina velutipes, means 'little flame with a velvet foot', very nicely referencing these characters. The pretty cap is dry to the touch in dry weather, but almost unbelievably slimy when it is wet. This topmost, slimy membrane goes by the delightful technical name of 'ixotrichodermium'.