Austin + Online: The Texas Star - Rare or Just Overlooked?

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AUSTIN + ONLINE: The Texas Star - Rare or Just Overlooked?

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🎤 Guest Speaker: Dr. Liz Bowman

🗓️ Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026

⏰ Time: 7 PM CST

📍 Location: UT Brackenridge Field Station & Online

💗 Donation: $0+ Members & Students, $10+ Non-Members

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🎤 Guest Speaker: Dr. Liz Bowman

🗓️ Date: Tuesday, November 17, 2026

⏰ Time: 7 PM CST

📍 Location: UT Brackenridge Field Station & Online

💗 Donation: $0+ Members & Students, $10+ Non-Members

The Texas Star Mushroom, Chorioactis geaster , is one of the most distinctive fungi in North America—and the official state mushroom of Texas. Yet despite its fame, we know surprisingly little about where it grows, how common it really is, or what it needs to survive. Chorioactis geaster has an unusual history. It is known from only two regions of the world: Japan and the south-central United States. These populations have been separated for more than 19 million years, making the Texas lineage an important piece of fungal evolutionary history. In Texas, the mushroom has traditionally been associated with decaying cedar elm stumps, but it is not yet clear whether cedar elm is truly required or whether this pattern reflects where people have traditionally looked for it.

In this talk, I’ll discuss what we know—and what we still don’t know—about the Texas Star, and how we can use both scientific surveys and citizen science to learn more. Reports and observations from mushroom hunters, naturalists, landowners, and other community scientists can help us build a much broader picture of where this unusual fungus occurs across Texas. By combining these observations with targeted field surveys, we can begin to determine whether the Texas Star is truly rare or simply under-documented, and what that might mean for conserving this remarkable Texas fungus.

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About the Guest Speaker

Dr. Liz Bowman is a fungal and molecular ecologist studying how plant–microbial interactions shape ecosystems, community composition, and nutrient cycling. She has researched plant–fungal symbioses across diverse ecosystems, from Arizona’s sky islands to Texas savannas and Kenya, and has also worked in industry developing microbial solutions for plastic biodegradation. Now at the University of Texas, Liz continues to investigate plant-fungal interactions. She is an advocate for citizen science and open science, sharing her passion for fungi through talks, writing, and mushroom walks in Austin, where she lives with her partner and two daughters.

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