Mushrooms are fascinating, and lobster mushrooms are at the top of that list for me! They're one of the more interesting species because they aren't just the fruiting body of fungi. Instead, they're a parasitic fungus that infects other species, turning them into gourmet edible lobster mushrooms. After writing several articles about plants, I thought it was time to get more mushroom info on the website. Let's discuss how to find this fascinating and delicious species in Colorado!
About Lobster Mushrooms
As mentioned above, lobster mushrooms aren't a fruiting body of a fungus. Instead, they're one of the many species of parasitic fungi in the genus Hypomyces. These parasites infect other species of fungi and usually induce drastic changes in their appearance, texture, and flavor for the edible varieties. In Colorado, the main host species for the lobster parasite, Hypomyces lactifluorum, is usually a Russula from the brevipes complex, though they can also infect some species of milkcaps in the genus Lactarius. The Russula they target are fairly plain-looking, white, gilled mushrooms. If you're finding these while looking for lobsters, you're definitely in the right place!
Join The Forage Colorado Newsletter!
Sign up for our email newsletter to get seasonal foraging tips, wild food classes,
early access to foraging events, and more!
Identifying Lobsters
Lobsters are a great mushroom for beginners to learn because nothing else looks like them! Like a cooked lobster, they are bright orange on both the top and underside, though the latter is usually brighter. Occasionally, you may find a partial lobster that isn't quite as orange as the others or maybe still shows some parts of the host species. This is because the Hypomyces hasn't finished the infecting process. You can see a lighter-colored one in the top center of the above photo. As far as I understand, these are still edible, though if there's any question, skip it. The flesh inside lobsters is white and firm, though as the mushroom matures and gets past the good stage for eating, it can become off-white to brown and soft. Lobster's spore color is white, but they have no gills or obvious spore-bearing structures, just a finely rough and bumpy surface on the stem and underside of the cap. The top of the cap is smoother and often has strange folds or creases that sometimes make cleaning the mushrooms a chore. Lobsters can have a fairly standard mushroom shape, but they can also take weird forms. I've found a lobster growing upside-down from the cap of another lobster or in an almost perfect ball and all sorts of shapes in between!
Where to Find Lobster Mushrooms
Lobster mushrooms can be tricky to locate in Colorado because their preferred habitat is pure or mostly ponderosa pine forests. From there, they also need their host species, the right conditions to fruit, and finally, you need to be able to spot them! It's a recipe that doesn't come together with any regularity, but with enough persistence, lobster mushrooms can be found here. I should add that this ponderosa association isn't always the case for lobsters in other states because their fruiting location is determined by the mycorrhizal preferences of their host species. Here and in the southwestern states, Russula brevipes like to grow in association with ponderosa, but in the Midwest, for instance, lobsters are found in hardwood forests!
In Colorado, we're lucky to have around 24.5 million acres of forested land; of that, around 2 million acres, or 8%, is ponderosa forest—numbers cited from the Colorado State Forest Service. Click the links for more info and maps! Ponderosa forests can be found throughout the Foothills of the Front Range, which is east of the continental divide and in southwestern Colorado, and sporadically spread through much of the western slope. These forests typically range from about 6,000 to 9,000 feet in elevation, though occasionally, they break outside those elevations on either side. Once you find your nearest ponderosa stand, it's time to check for lobsters!
When to Find Lobster Mushrooms
Typically, lobster mushrooms fruit in the summer and fall, with the first ones usually showing up in July, though I wouldn't be surprised to see them found in late June some years. These ponderosa forests are often pretty warm and dry habitats, so ideally, you'll want to search soon after a nice rain! While hunting for lobsters, you must train yourself to notice what the mushroom world calls mushrumps. Small rises in the soil, forest litter, and debris signify a mushroom is fruiting underneath! This feature is great to learn because many species create mushrumps, including matsutake, Agaricus, and young boletes. Not all lobsters live under mushrumps, though. Once they get large enough, they will break through to the surface and only remain partially covered by debris! Check out the photo below for an example of a mushrump, and the video to see me uncovering some primo lobsters!
Lobsters Need Rain
My general tactic for lobster mushroom hunting starts by checking a precipitation map to see if any of my usual ponderosa haunts have gotten some rain recently. Here's the best resource for checking precipitation: https://water.weather.gov/precip/
Enable the Precipitation Estimate Tool and set the timeframe to Day. Select the year, month, and number of days to include in the data; I usually use 7 or 14 days. Finally, turn down the opacity of the precipitation layer so you can see the map below it. If I see an area with consistent rain over the last couple of weeks, around an inch or more, I'll head to those spots first!
Micro-Habitats for Lobsters
As with all mushrooms, it's often a good idea to look for water-holding micro-habitats when in the forest. This is usually small drainages or depressions in the landscape, low spots where water would settle, north-facing slopes, or large patches of bearberry, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi, a low-growing plant found in many of our conifer forests. If the lobsters are fruiting well, focusing on these micro-habitats may not be necessary, but it's always a good tactic to keep in mind!
All this planning and research should lead you to some success, though, like many mushrooms, it might take a couple of failures first! There are years where all the conditions line up, and everything seems to be prime for lobsters, but I find nothing. Other years, I'm not super optimistic, but I find lots! Eventually, you'll have some success, and when you find a lobster or two, be sure to scour the area for more. After a bit of close examination, I almost always find more than one in the same area!
Processing Lobster Mushrooms
So you've found some lobsters, what's next? Out of all the wild mushrooms, lobsters are one of the few I leave dirty until I get them home. Because of how and where they grow, they're almost always covered in dirt and debris, and cleaning them can be quite difficult. In the field, I'll brush and blow away as much as possible without spending too much time on it, and I'll keep them separate from any other mushrooms I'm picking. When I get home, they get a full spa treatment! Rinsed, gently scrubbed, bad or buggy parts trimmed away, tough folds are broken open to be cleaned, and then finally laid out on a wire rack and/or dish towel to dry. Lobsters are stout and dense. They can stand up to a pretty rigorous cleaning! Don't worry about the claim of never washing mushrooms. It's a myth. Washing your mushrooms is totally okay and often necessary! Be sure to let them dry off before storing them, though!
For storage, I usually keep the prime specimens in paper bags and put them in the veggie drawer in the fridge. Also known as the foraging drawer at our house! The older mushrooms and small pieces get sliced and placed in the dehydrator to be saved for later use. Lobster mushrooms dehydrate well and, in that state, are great for mushroom powder, added to soups, or rehydrated and used in sauces!
Cooking Lobster Mushrooms
Speaking of cooking, let's discuss ways to use your lobster mushrooms. They have a unique texture; they're quite dense and almost crunchy. Their flavor is pretty mild and mushroomy with a hint of seafood. They're one of my favorites!
Their dense flesh lends well to being used in longer cooking applications, like mushroom soups or seafood chowders. They also go great in pasta dishes, adding a nice mushroomy seafood flavor and some bite to the otherwise soft dish. I've used them for "lobster" mac and cheese and in a simple bechamel sauce. Both were delicious! A trick I picked up from the great Alan Bergo of Forager Chef is using lobster mushroom powder in a rub to coat fish or other meats before searing! Alan has many great lobster mushroom recipes, so check those out when you need inspiration.
Other Hypomyces Species
One final note before we finish this article! This is mostly for the mushroom nerds, but you've made it this far, so welcome to the club. At the start of the article, I mentioned Hypomyces, the genus of parasitic fungi that lobsters are in. Well, there are some weird and cool examples of Hypomyces infections that you'll likely come across in your mushroom-hunting career, and I wanted to mention a few!
For instance, H. chrysospermus is the species that infects boletes, rendering them inedible and stark white. There's also H. lateritius, which infects milkcaps and induces a lobster-like transformation. I've read that these infected milkcaps are edible, but I didn't try it the single time I found an infected specimen. There's also H. luteovirens, which is very similar to lobsters but turns the host a weird green-yellow color! I've never been lucky enough to find one of those, but apparently, they're also edible. Finally, just for kicks, check out the strangely infected specimen in the top right photo below. I found this in the same area where I was picking lobsters, so I assume it was an H. lactifluorum infection, but I don't know. It's a Russula from the xerampalina group (known as shrimp russula, lots of seafood names), which was infected, causing the flesh to become dense and firm and the gills to knit together!
Foraging Calendar
To learn more about the best seasons to harvest lobsters and many other wild foods, check out my Foraging Calendar & Wild Food Database! You can try the demo version to learn more, and join my Patreon to gain full access to the Foraging Calendar and other exclusive perks! Joining is the best way to support all the work I put into my content and website to help you learn about foraging! Thank you for checking it out!
