 Fruit bodies were first collected in Austin , Texas , and the species was named Urnula geaster in 1893 ; later it was found in Kyushu in 1937 , but the mushroom was not reported again in Japan until 1973 . Although the new genus Chorioactis was proposed to accommodate the unique species a few years after its original discovery , it was not until 1968 that it was accepted as a valid genus . Its classification has also been a source of confusion . Historically , Chorioactis was placed in the fungus family Sarcosomataceae , despite inconsistencies in the microscopic structure of the ascus , the saclike structure in which spores are formed . Phylogenetic analyses of the past decade have clarified the fungus 's classification : Chorioactis , along with three other genera , make up the family Chorioactidaceae , a grouping of related fungi formally acknowledged in 2008 . In 2009 , Japanese researchers reported discovering a form of the fungus missing the sexual stage of its life cycle ; this asexual state was named Kumanasamuha geaster . 
