Velvet-stemmed Little Flame

December is the best time to find Velvet Shank fungus, Flammulina velutipes. It’s a species I found as a child:

Velvet Shank – forty years ago in my nature notebooks

And here it is again:

It’s got a distinctive dark velvety stem, which is where it gets the Velvet Shank name from.

Flammulina means little flame and velutipes means velvet stem. It’s a Velvet-stemmed Little Flame.