Creepy New Sunflower Discovered in Texas National Park

Researchers have discovered a previously unknown member of the sunflower family in Texas’ Big Bend National Park—the first time a new plant genus and species has been identified in a U.S. national park in almost five decades.

The flower, called Ovicula biradiata and dubbed the “wooly devil,” is described in a study published February in the journal PhytoKeys. The Big Bend National Park is well known to botanists, underscoring the fact that even extensively studied regions can still yield surprises.

“While many assume that the plants and animals within our country’s national parks have probably been documented by now, scientists still make surprising new discoveries in these iconic protected landscapes,” Isaac Lichter Marck, a plant taxonomist from the California Academy of Sciences and co-author of the study, says in the academy’s statement.

Wooly devils growing in rocky earth. © Big Bend National Park

Lichter Marck said O. biradiata belongs to the sunflower family, even though it doesn’t immediately resemble its typically radiant, sunburst-like kin.

“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,” he added. A genus is the biological classification between species and family.

A park volunteer first observed the wooly devil in March 2024 and uploaded its information into a community science app called iNaturalist. This small plant features furry white leaves and maroon-striped ray florets (petal-looking parts of a flower head). Botanists call it a “belly plant” because it’s easiest to observe when lying down. It thrives in rocky, dry habitats and blooms only after it rains.

Park botanist Carolyn Whiting photographs the small wooly devil. © Big Bend National Park

“Plants that thrive in deserts are often quite unique, having evolved specific mechanisms to withstand the extreme drought-and-deluge conditions of these arid landscapes—from water-storing structures to rapid life cycles triggered by rain,” Lichter Marck explained. “But as climate change pushes deserts to become hotter and drier, highly specialized plants like the wooly devil face extinction.” The team has only observed this plant in three narrow spots at the park’s northern edge, raising the possibility that they’ve recorded a species already in decline, Lichter Marck added.

“Ovicula” means “tiny sheep,” referencing the plant’s furry leaves and the Big Bend’s bighorn sheep, while “biradiata,” meaning “bi-radial,” highlights its maroon stripes.

“Now that the species has been identified and named, there is a tremendous amount we have yet to learn about it,” said Carolyn Whiting, a Big Bend National Park botanist and co-author of the study. She’s hoping to find other populations of the wooly devil elsewhere in the park, and to also learn more about its life cycle and reproductive processes. As a drought is currently hitting the region, it’s unknown if new plants will appear later this spring, Whiting said.

Back in the lab, the researchers documented the presence of glands on the wooly devil that have been found to possess anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory compounds in other members of the sunflower family. While these properties still need to be confirmed in the new species, California Academy of Sciences’ Keily Peralta, another co-author of the study, said “this discovery underscores the potential knowledge we stand to gain from preserving plant diversity in fragile desert ecosystems.”