Scientists hope a newly discovered flower will return after rain in West Texas
Scientists who want to learn more about a tiny flower recently discovered in West Texas are hoping it will bloom again in a couple of weeks after rain finally fell in the area.
Dubbed the wooly devil, the flower with furry leaves, purplish-striped petals and pops of yellow is a new genus and species in the same family as sunflowers and daisies: Asteraceae. It was discovered last year in Big Bend National Park, known for its rugged terrain of desert, canyons and mountains, on the border with Mexico.
'There's a lot to learn with this species so they're really just getting started,' said Carolyn Whiting, a Big Bend botanist.
Scientists are hopeful the flowers will bloom again after rain fell on the drought-stricken park last week, giving them the opportunity to learn more including when the plants germinate, Whiting said.
The flower was discovered in March 2024. Park volunteer Deb Manley and a park ranger were hiking in a remote area when they saw a patch of flowers that were smaller than a quarter and close to the ground.
'We stopped and took some photos and neither one of us had any idea,' Manley said. 'I could get it to family but I couldn't figure out any more than that. So we took photos and moved on, not realizing we had found a new genus.'
When Manley got back from the hike, she started researching what the flower could be. She soon found that not only was she stumped, but others were too. Her post about the flower on iNaturalist, an online platform for nature enthusiasts 'caused a stir,' said Isaac Lichter Marck, a researcher at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.
A. Michael Powell, curator and director of the herbarium at Sul Russ State University in Alpine, said when Manley contacted him about the flower, he immediately thought it was something new.
'It wasn't anything I'd seen before,' said Powell, who has extensively studied the region.
By the time a team went to collect samples of the flower a few weeks after the discovery, they had already begun to wither away.
'We really got out there just in the nick of time before the specimens would have been completely dried up,' Whiting said.
The discovery of the flower was announced last month.
Lichter Marck said they were able to extract DNA from the flower but that there's still a lot to learn. He said they don't know yet how it reproduces, or what potential uses it might have. They also need to determine if it's endangered.
The wooly devil's official name — Ovicula biradiata — takes inspiration from its appearance: Ovicula, which means tiny sheep, is a nod to the hairs that cover its leaves; while biradiata, or bi-radial, refers to its two striped petals.
Kelsey Wogan, environmental lab manager at Sul Ross State University, said she's excited to see if the wooly devil can be found in other places as well and what its range is.
Whiting said the park is so well-studied that finding a new species was a surprise.
'The fact that there's still species out there that had slipped under the radar is pretty remarkable,' she said.
Wogan said part of the excitement about the flower's discovery is that it shows 'there's still new and undescribed things out there.'
'It's the great reminder to keep your eyes open," she said, "and if you don't know what something is, it might be completely new.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
30-05-2025
- The Independent
Mystery as six gray whales found dead after unusually high influx into San Francisco Bay
Six gray whales have died in the San Francisco Bay Area region in the last week, officials have said. With the additional deaths, the total number of stranded whales this year has reached 15. Of those, 14 are gray whales, according to the California Academy of Sciences and partners at The Marine Mammal Center. 'In 2025, 14 gray whales and one minke whale have died in the greater San Francisco Bay Area region, with the cause of three of the gray whale deaths determined to be suspect or probable vessel strikes,' the academy wrote in a press release Thursday. 'The Academy and partners at the Center have not responded to this many dead gray whales since the height of the Unusual Mortality Event in 2019 (14 individuals) and 2021 (15 individuals).' However, the cause of the deaths of the other whales who died between May 21 and Wednesday are undetermined. Those animals died in multiple locations, including Berkeley, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Alcatraz. 'Necropsy response efforts and data collection have been challenging for a number of cases due to inaccessible locations that hinder full post-mortem investigations, as well as poor tissue quality from advanced decomposition, and the lack of available locations to tow for further investigation,' the academy noted. However, there have also been an unusually high number of sightings around the bay, including 33 individual gray whales. That's more than five times the number of whales that were sighted last year. Of those, approximately one-third have stayed in the Bay Area for at least 20 days, some of which were emaciated. Researchers are still working to determine what's driving the massive spike in sightings, and it is expected that gray whales will remain in the area for another one or two weeks before continuing their annual northern migration to feeding grounds in the Arctic. Dozens of gray whales have died along Mexico's Baja California peninsula since the year's start, and only five mother and calf pairs were identified in Laguna San Ignacio, where wintering whales gather. One of the main causes of death for whales on both coasts are vessel strikes, and the academy and the center pointed out gray whales can be even tougher to spot in the water than humpbacks and other coastal whales. To reduce the risk, they've altered ferry lanes based on sighting data and increased communication via the U.S. Coast Guard, so boaters can be 'whale aware.' If people do see a whale in the bay, they can report the sighting using the Whale Alert app, and people who find dead marine mammals are asked to contact the Academy's department of Ornithology and Mammalogy.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Erin Patterson mushroom murder trial LIVE updates: Fungi expert under cross-examination
Fungi expert on death cap mushrooms Mycologist Tom May (pictured below), who is an internationally recognised fungi expert, yesterday told the jury death cap mushrooms can only be found beneath or close to oak trees or trees within the oak family. Dr May, a mushroom expert who was the principal fungi research scientist at the Royal Botanical Gardens, said death caps had a 'symbiotic' relationship with oak trees. The mushroom expert, who will continue answering questions under cross-examination this morning, described death caps as mostly orangey in colour, but could be whiteish or brownish. He said they change their appearance as they matured. Dr May told the jury death cap mushrooms - known scientifically as amanita phalloides - were believed to have been accidentally introduced into Australia from Europe and were first detected in Victoria in the 1970s. He said the mushrooms were 'relatively short lived' in the wild due to wet conditions and insects. Dr May said death caps wouldn't last much longer in a refrigerator due to the fungi being infested with insects that 'keep working away' at the mushrooms. Dr May said there were many publicly available online databases that contained information regarding death cap mushrooms. He said iNaturalist is Australia's largest publicly accessible citizen scientist app for uploading information about fungi. Dr May told the jury you need an account to post information about wild mushroom, but don't need an account to view 'precise location information'. 'You can readily find the location of certain species,' he said. The jury heard a death cap was detected in Loch on April 18, 2023. The doctor said death cap mushrooms have been found in the ACT, NSW and parts of Victoria, including Gippsland towns Outtrim, Loch and Morwell. In Victoria, death caps grow throughout metro Melbourne to the east into the Dandenong Ranges and in the west to Gisborne and Bendigo, the jury was told. Dr May said cases involving death cap mushrooms occured when people ingested the deadly fungi by mistake. Dr May, who published a book in 2021, told the jury toxins found in death caps can be in found other mushrooms. In 2023, one poisoning involved a Chinese tourist who ate a mushroom, became sick, went to hospital, showed early signs of organ failure, but left hospital a week later. In 24 other cases of reported wild mushroom poisonings, patients experienced gastro symptoms, but none involved organ damage. Accused mushroom murderer Erin Patterson, 50, last week witnessed both her children's recorded video evidence. Patterson, who is accused of murdering her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, after serving them a deadly meal laden with death cap mushrooms, became emotional after seeing video evidence from her son and daughter. Patterson is also accused of attempting to murder Heather's husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson who survived the lunch after spending several weeks in an intensive care unit. The court heard Patterson's estranged husband, Simon, was also invited but didn't attend. Witnesses told the jury Patterson ate her serving from a smaller and differently coloured plate than those of her guests, who ate from four grey plates, the court heard. Patterson told authorities she bought dried mushrooms from an unnamed Asian store in the Monash area of Melbourne, but health inspectors could find no evidence of this. The health department declared the death cap poisoning was 'isolated' to Patterson's deadly lunch. Multiple witnesses including Simon Patterson, Ian Wilkinson and other family members have given emotion-charged evidence to the jury. Medical staff have told the jury of the horrifying symptoms the dying lunch guests and Ian Wilkinson suffered. Patterson's movements at hospital and her abrupt departure have also been aired in court as the trial continues this morning.
BBC News
04-05-2025
- BBC News
The enthusiast searching for stunning sea slugs
Paul Naylor "Sea slugs are like normal slugs you find in your garden but jazzed up," Eleanor Goodman says. Ms Goodman, a Devon Wildlife Trust volunteer based at Wembury Marine Centre, said she was passionate about sea slugs because they are "one of the most colourful rock pool species you will find". She said there were more than 1000 species of the creatures, also called nudibranch, and they were a lot smaller than terrestrial slugs. The intertidal enthusiast spends much of her time trying to find them on the shoreline and says they are "absolutely stunning". Ms Goodman, whose day job is a marine officer for Natural England, said the invertebrates can be found anywhere on rocky shores and down to the subtidal zones. Many of them line along the south coast because the waters are a "little bit milder" and tended to be relatively sheltered, she said. "Sea slugs love gullies, kelp forests and seaweed and they have a wide range of habitats." The 27-year old said people had to be "lucky" to see the colourful species because the smaller ones are only a couple of millimetres and the larger ones measure a couple of centimetres. "What I normally do is get right down, nose to the water and bottom in the air," she said. "If you have got a good pair of eyes and patience, anyone will be able to see them." Nathan Jackson Eleanor Goodman Ms Goodman said she was passionate about all marine life, but there was something special about sea slugs. "There is something really lovely in slowing down, being patient and getting your eye in and looking very closely at rock pools. "I didn't even know sea slugs were a thing when I first started rock pooling, I thought it was just crabs and starfish. "They are absolutely stunning- I just love them." In 2022 a rainbow sea slug was discovered in the Isles of Scilly which was neon purple, pink and yellow. She said there was also another species named the Disco Doris which looks like "70s wallpaper". "It's like a slug going to a rave," she said. "They are just so gorgeous, they come in a wide range of colours and definitely one of the most colourful rock pool species you will find." Ms Goodman said most of them had highly specialised diets. She said: "Mostly feed on anemones, seaweeds and marine algae, hydroids and bryozoans, and other sea slugs and sea slug eggs." It is her mission to find as many species of sea slugs as possible and anyone who finds one should record them on iNaturalist to add data to the biodiversity network. "Some sea slugs are climate change indicators," Ms Goodman added. "Some come from the Mediterranean and they are migrating northwards, expanding their ranges so it is nice to paint a picture of how the seas might be warming and how that might change our waters." Follow BBC Devon on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@ Marine life Wembury Cornwall Devon
