 Because this species resembles the earthstar fungi of Geastrum , it was placed in that genus by early authors , starting with Christian <unk> Persoon in 1801 ( as <unk> , an alternate spelling of Geastrum ) . According to the American botanist Andrew P. Morgan , however , the species differed from those of Geastrum in not having open chambers in the young gleba , having larger and branched <unk> threads , not having a true hymenium , and having larger spores . Accordingly , Morgan set Persoon 's <unk> <unk> as the type species of his new genus Astraeus in 1889 . Despite Morgan 's publication , some authorities in the following decades continued to classify the species in Geastrum . The New @-@ Zealand based mycologist Gordon <unk> Cunningham explicitly transferred the species back to the genus Geastrum in 1944 , explaining : 
