Fungi Lovers: Nine days in the life of Enokitake, or Flammulina velutipes.

This story began on February 8 this year, in a small square.

On a cut branch of a walnut, I saw a cheerful family of mushrooms called Enokitake, or Flammulina velutipes.

This family felt very cheerful, despite the fact that it was very cold outside, about fifteen degrees Celsius below zero.

Someone loves the heat, and someone dreams of the onset of frost and this mushroom is proof of this.

The frost didn't turn the mushrooms into ice sculptures.

Yes, I must say that this is a completely edible mushroom, but, in Ukraine, it is not popular, apparently because of the translucent pulp, which does not cause a rush of saliva, for sure.

It is a bit like sea mollusks, or jellyfish, which you don’t want to pick up.

But, the Japanese can argue with this, in Japan this mushroom is in demand and is a frequent ingredient in Japanese cuisine.

This is what these mushrooms looked like when I saw them on the day from which the countdown of nine days began.

Circumstances developed in such a way that, in nine days, I again had to be in this square.

Do you know how these mushrooms ended up on the cut of this tree, which was made by the landscaping workers?

Yes, exactly, thanks to them and the chainsaw, on the teeth of which there were mushroom spores, this family of mushrooms grew on the cut of a branch.

Those who seek to save trees from infection are themselves carriers of spores, it is similar to the fashionable vaccination against coronovirus, when the vaccinated are the main carriers of the disease.

But if the mushroom could think, he would be grateful to those people who gave him a new territory for life.

But, all joy comes to an end and, on February 17, nine days later, it was warm, the snow began to melt, and, along with it. our mushrooms have begun to wither.

Rapid life in spite of the cold and rapid death in the arms of the warm sun, this is how the event taking place on this hazel tree can be called.

But what seems to be the end is actually the beginning of something new.

Photos taken with a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX300 camera.

Author @barski