#houndbite

Walker bros as warrior cats finally!!!!!

sorry these pictures kinda suck but a while ago i found this while out on a walk! it was really hard and there were a lot of tiny bugs around it

Okay, these gave me a headache, but after many many books and my nifty app and the opinion of one of the experts where I did the identifiying class, please be seated and hold on - these are something very special.

These are lobster mushrooms.

Well duh, you will think, with that colour? Sure thing.

BUT.

Lobster mushrooms are not actual mushrooms.

Rather, it is a parasitic fungus called Hypomyces lactifluorum which infects normal mushrooms, preferably milk-caps (Lactarius) or brittlegills (Russula). This fungus turns the outside of the mushroom a bright orangey red, like a cooked lobster. Also, the fungus makes the outer shell of the mushroom really firm. In the end, the original mushroom will be almost unidentifiable once fully covered by hypomyces lactifluorum. Yours appears to be a lactarius of some sort, so the fungus hasn’t completely covered it yet.

One more surprising thing.

Ew, you may think, a mushroom covered with a fungus? Surely that’s not edible. - Well, it is! Lobster mushrooms have a seafood-like flavour and are widely marketed and enjoyed.

Here’s a video of some guys plucking - or rather unearthing - lobster mushrooms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GMAGEryp08