Can you imagine a mushroom that is capable of making sounds? Not weak sound waves, distinguishable only with the help of special devices, but a quite noticeable whistle that any person hears. This mushroom is called the devil's cigar, and at some point in its life it is able to whistle.
The Devil's Cigar, or, as it is also called, the Texas Star, has the scientific name Chorioactis geaster. These strange mushrooms grow in only two places on the planet. These are the American state of Texas and the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Honshu. The devil's cigar is precisely the American version of the name, and in Japan the mushroom is called kirinomitaki. The fungus prefers to settle on old stumps or dead roots of broad-leaved trees. In North America, it prefers to settle on elms, while in Japan it can be found in forests where oak trees grow.
The young mushroom has a brown color and the shape of an elongated pod, so it somewhat resembles a cigar, for which it got its name. After the mushroom is ripe, it opens up, throwing a cloud of spores into the air. This process is accompanied by a distinct hissing or whistling sound, and after opening, the mushroom takes the form of a flower with 5-7 petals.
It is interesting that, despite many places similar in their natural and climatic parameters to Texas or the Japanese islands, these mushrooms are not found anywhere else in the world. Scientists who carried out genetic analysis of these two populations concluded that these "mushroom families" split about 19 million years ago or even earlier.