Lobster mushroom
Not really a mushroom at all, but a fungus that attacks another mushroom, turning it lobster-orange, firm, and good to eat.
Lobster mushroom at a glance
Hypomyces lactifluorum Hypomyces lactifluorum is hy-poh-MY-seez lak-tih-FLOR-um
- Type
- Fungus · fungus
- Diet
- Other
- Size
- As big as the mushroom it takes over, often about the size of your fist or a bit larger.
- Lifespan
- It appears for a few weeks in late summer and fall, wherever its host mushrooms grow.
- Conservation
- Not formally assessed by IUCN; widespread in North American forests
It is a parasite. Its threads grow over and into a host mushroom, feeding on it and taking it over completely, coating the host in a hard orange crust and reshaping it as it goes.
Is it safe to touch?
Never eat any wild mushroom you find. This one is prized by expert foragers, but telling it and its safe hosts apart from lookalikes takes real training, and a mistake with wild fungi can be very dangerous. Look, photograph, and leave it.
The orange thing on the forest floor at Olympic is a riddle. It is bright as a cooked lobster shell, firm, dense, dimpled all over, and it smells faintly of the sea. It is called a lobster mushroom, and almost nothing about that name is straightforward, because the orange part is not really a mushroom, and the thing it grew from is barely there anymore.
What happened is a takeover. Somewhere under the orange crust there was once an ordinary pale mushroom, a milkcap or a brittlegill, minding its own business. Then the spores of a second fungus landed on it and began to grow, spreading a coat of threads across its surface and into its flesh, feeding on it and remaking it. The parasite hardens the host, turns it that unmistakable orange, and warps its shape until the original mushroom is unrecognizable, a shell worn by the fungus that ate it. The little bumps dotting the crust are the openings where the parasite pushes out its own spores to find the next victim.
The disguise is so complete that people gathered and ate lobster mushrooms for years, prizing their firm seafood flavor, long before anyone sorted out that they were eating one fungus wearing another. That history is exactly why you should look and not taste. Safely telling wild fungi apart takes real training, and a mistake can be dangerous. Photograph the strange orange lobster of the woods, and leave it right where it grew, a mushroom that ate a mushroom.
Did you know?
- It is a mushroom that eats a mushroom. The bright orange part is a fungus called Hypomyces that has grown over a host mushroom and taken it over.
- The takeover changes the host so much, turning it firm, orange, and seafood-scented, that people ate lobster mushrooms for years before anyone worked out what was really going on.
- Its orange crust is dotted with countless tiny bumps, which are the openings where the parasite releases its spores.
Common questions
Is a lobster mushroom really a mushroom?
Not by itself. The orange part is a separate fungus that has grown over and taken over a different host mushroom. So a lobster mushroom is really one fungus wearing another.
Why is it called a lobster mushroom?
Because the parasite turns the host bright orange-red, like a cooked lobster shell, and makes it firm with a faint seafood smell.
Can I eat one I find?
Please don't. Foragers prize them, but safely identifying wild mushrooms takes real training, and mistakes can be very dangerous. Take a picture and leave it in the forest.