30 Bizarre and Beautiful Mushrooms
Devil's Cigar (Chorioactis geaster)
Two devil's cigar mushrooms growing together on forest floor
Mason Lalley (Tootybooty)/Mushroom Observer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
The devil's cigar is an extremely rare mushroom, found only in very select locations in Texas and Japan. Scientists do not yet understand why the fungus has this disjunct distribution. In 1939, mycologist Fred Jay Seaver wrote, "It would be difficult indeed to account for it, and we merely accept the facts as they are."4
It's not a normal-looking mushroom, either. Instead of the traditional stem-and-cap fungi format, devil's cigar looks more like a pedaled flower or a star (in fact, another nickname is the Texas star).
Two devil's cigar mushrooms growing together on forest floor
Mason Lalley (Tootybooty)/Mushroom Observer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0
The devil's cigar is an extremely rare mushroom, found only in very select locations in Texas and Japan. Scientists do not yet understand why the fungus has this disjunct distribution. In 1939, mycologist Fred Jay Seaver wrote, "It would be difficult indeed to account for it, and we merely accept the facts as they are."4
It's not a normal-looking mushroom, either. Instead of the traditional stem-and-cap fungi format, devil's cigar looks more like a pedaled flower or a star (in fact, another nickname is the Texas star).
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18 December 2022
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