User:Squeamish Ossifrage/sandbox/hl

Taxonomy and phylogeny
The lobster mushroom was first described by the "Father of North American Mycology" Lewis David de Schweinitz, who named it Sphaeria lactifluorum in 1822. It was moved to Hypomyces in 1860 by the French mycologist brothers Louis René and Charles Tulasne. In 1898, Otto Kuntze reassigned it to the genus Hypolyssus as part of the sweeping reform of botanical nomenclature he proposed in his Revisio Generum Plantarum, but this new taxonomy was largely rejected. Also in 1898, Charles Horton Peck described a species of Hypomyces that was purple rather than orange, but otherwise similar, naming it H. purpureus. However, under moist conditions, mature specimens of H. lactifluorum take on the same purple color, and the two species were shown to be equivalent.

The specific epithet lactifluorum is derived from the Latin words lac and fluorum, meaning "milk-flowing", a reference to the milky exudate of its Lactarius piperatus host.

In the context of plant pathology, it has also been called the "red disease of mushrooms".

Chemotaxonomy
The pigment responsible for the distinctive orange color of H. lactifluorum has been identified as the anthroquinone derivative skyrin. The lobster mushroom is part of a "well-supported" clade with other orange species of Hypomyces, such as H. aurantius and H. subiculosus, which is a sister group to those producing the red pigment aurofusarin.

Similar species
Although the host mushroom is often impossible to identify, Hypomyces lactifluorum itself is distinctive and easily recognizable, although it may resemble chanterelles. The closely related H. aurantius shares the bright orange color of the lobster mushroom, but parasitizes jelly fungi or polypores, while species of Hypomyces with similar hosts, such as H. luteovirens, are not orange.

Distribution, habitat, and ecology
Hypomyces lactifluorum is widely distributed in North America. It has been recorded from every Canadian province, the continental United States from the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest to the Southwest, Mexico, and Guatemala. Although both Lactarius piperatus and Russula brevipes occur elsewhere, the lobster mushroom is not known outside North America.

Culinary use
The lobster mushroom is widely regarded as a choice edible,   with a "mild to peppery seafood flavor", although some consider it mediocre or bland. The inability to reliably identify the host has led to concerns that it may parasitize a poisonous species, and young specimens that have not completely altered their hosts may be unpleasant. However, H. lactifluorum has been safely consumed for "hundreds of years".