25-02-2025
Meet the 'Wooly Devil,' the new plant species discovered at Big Bend National Park
Meet the 'Wooly Devil,' the new plant species discovered at Big Bend National Park
Walking through the boundless landscape of red rocks and limestone cliffs in Texas' Big Bend National Park last March, a volunteer and a park ranger came across a plant they didn't recognize. It was tiny – measuring only a few centimeters in length – with striking red petals and green leaves covered in what appeared to be thick white wool.
Deb Manley, the volunteer, snapped pictures of the plant and uploaded them to the app iNaturalists, where botanists from around the globe chimed in to help identify the mysterious plant. But with no immediate answers, she and the ranger consulted herbarium records, plant publications and local experts. Still, the plant's identity eluded them and raised questions.
Now, more than a year later, scientists have confirmed that what they came across in the arid Chihuahuan Desert was an entirely new plant species – the first such discovery to take place within a U.S. National Park in nearly half a century, Big Bend National Park announced on Monday.
A newly published study in the botanical journal PhytoKeys said the Ovicula biradiata, or the "Wooly Devil" as botanists have come to call it, is not only a new species but an entirely new genus within the daisy and sunflower family.
"O. biradiata is a member of the sunflower family, although it does not resemble its sunburst-shaped relatives at first glance," Isaac Lichter Marck, one of the authors of the study, told the California Academy of Sciences, which was involved in the research.
"After sequencing its DNA and comparing it with other specimens in the Academy's herbarium, we discovered that this small, fuzzy plant is not only a new species within the sunflower group, but it is also distinct enough from its closest relatives to warrant an entirely new genus.'
The plant ranges in size from less than one centimeter to 3 to 7 centimeters across, researchers said. The Wooly Devil is what botanists refer to as a "belly plant," small plants that can only be property seen while laying on the ground. As suggested by its location – among desert rocks in a remote area in the northern reaches of the park – the plant can survive in rocky, drought-stricken environments.
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Its name is inspired by its appearance. Ovicula means tiny sheep, a references to the white 'wool' that covers the small plant's leaves. Biradiata is a reference to the strap-shaped petals in each flower.
'Now that the species has been identified and named, there is a tremendous amount we have yet to learn about it,' said Big Bend National Park Superintendent Anjna O'Connor. 'I'm excited to discover whether there are other populations in the park, details of its life cycle, what are the pollinators, and due to the current drought, if it will be observed at all this spring.'
While scientists will study it at the park, other researchers are investigating whether it has any possible medicinal properties. Keily Peralta, a coauthor of the study, told the California Academy of Sciences that she and others researchers have noticed the "Wooly Devil" has glands that are "known to possess compounds with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties in other plants within the sunflower family."
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'While further research is needed to determine these properties, this discovery underscores the potential knowledge we stand to gain from preserving plant diversity in fragile desert ecosystems," she added.
Despite the plant's exceptional resilience in the desert, the Wooly Devil, like countless plant species across the globe, faces an existential threat from climate change, Marck said.
'As climate change pushes deserts to become hotter and drier, highly specialized plants like the wooly devil face extinction," he said. "We have only observed this plant in three narrow locations across the northernmost corner of the park, and it's possible that we've documented a species that is already on its way out.'
