A lobster mushroom gets its bright red coat from another fungus — ChillScroll

A vivid orange-red lobster mushroom with creamy folds on a mossy forest floor

A lobster mushroom gets its bright red coat from another fungus

A lobster mushroom begins as one kind of mushroom, then a second fungus grows over it. That outer fungus changes its host's shape and covers it in a firm orange-red layer.

The result looks less like a mushroom and more like a forest sculpture.

Source · U.S. National Park Service ↗