 The fungus was first collected in Austin , Texas , in 1893 by botanist Lucien Marcus Underwood , who sent the specimens to mycologist Charles Horton Peck for identification . Peck described the species as Urnula geaster in that year 's Annual Report of the New York State botanist , although he expressed doubt about its generic placement in Urnula . In 1902 , student mycologist Elsie Kupfer questioned the proposed classification of various species in the genera Urnula and Geopyxis , as suggested in an 1896 publication on the Discomycetes by German mycologist Heinrich Rehm . She considered Rehm 's transfer of the species to the genus Geopyxis illogical : 
