Hear that? The hissing Texas mushroom is blooming

AUSTIN (KXAN) – It’s the most wonderful time of the year! The Texas star mushrooms are blooming -- and hissing -- throughout Central Texas. 

The Texas star – scientific name Chorioactis Geaster and commonly known as both the Devil’s Cigar and Texas star – is the official State Mushroom of Texas. Legislation designating it as such was filed in 2021 by former House Rep. Ben Leman and later signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The mushroom appears during cooler months and grows only on the decomposing cedar elm tree stumps and roots in the U.S. The rare mushroom has been found only in Texas and over 6,000 miles away in Japan, where it grows on decaying oak trees. 

Oh, and yes, it hisses. 

“[The Texas star] will open up into a leathery star of four to eight points,” said Angel Schatz with the Central Texas Mycology Society. “That's when it starts to send off its spores, and sometimes you can hear an audible hiss,” Schatz said. 

“[Mushrooms] will shoot their spores when there's humidity and also when they feel the wind coming because the spores will catch the wind and be carried off to another area where they have a possibility of colonizing and re-fruiting,” she continued. 

While the mushroom is undoubtedly rare, it can be pretty easy to spot in Central Texas if you know what to look for. 

Schatz said when out foraging in a green space, try to find cedar elm tree leaves littered on the ground. 

“If you see kind of tiny little leaves with serrated edges – it  kind of looks like a knife edge… You'll know that you're in a cedar elm forest – just look for stumps that are turning brown,” she said. 

If you’re still not feeling confident in your fungus-finding skills, Central Texas Mycology Society leads walks while the mushroom is fruiting. 

 “I just encourage people to go out and look for it,” Shcatz said. “[We have] other state symbols – the blue bonnet, we have state birds -we now have a state mushroom. So go out and enjoy it.”