Lobster Mushroom

Description:

The lobster mushroom is not a mushroom, but a fungus that colonizes mushrooms belonging to the genus Russula or Lactarius. The fungus creates a bright orange to orange-red covering the mushroom. The covering was present on mushrooms as they emerged from the ground and caused the shape of the growing host mushroom to be folded over or strongly inverted, contorted caps. The gill surface of the host mushrooms covered with this fungus were smooth or showed shallow folds. Small red pustules were visible in the coating on the surface of the host mushroom (image #5); these are the structured (perithecia) in which the spores of Hypomyces lactifluorum are produced.

Habitat:

Found in pine needle litter at the edge of a trail in an open mixed pine/hardwood forest.