The edible mushroom commonly called the golden needle mushroom is enoki.
Enoki is the cultivated form commonly associated with Flammulina filiformis, an East Asian species of gilled mushroom in the family Physalacriaceae. In Mandarin Chinese, it is called jīnzhēngū, meaning “golden needle mushroom,” a reference to its slender appearance. The Japanese name enokitake means “hackberry mushroom,” because wild specimens often grow on hackberry trees.
Cultivated enoki looks very different from wild enoki. It is grown in darkness and tightly controlled conditions, producing long white stems and tiny caps. Wild specimens receive light, develop shorter stems, and have yellow-brown caps. Enoki is widely used in Japanese, Chinese, and Korean cooking, especially in soups, hot pots, and stir-fries.
A common mix-up is treating enoki as a single worldwide species. DNA studies separated the East Asian F. filiformis from the closely related European F. velutipes, traditionally called the velvet shank or winter mushroom.