Big Bend National Park Discovers New Plant Species
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Exciting news out of Big Bend National Park:a volunteer in the park’s botany program and a supervisory interpretive park ranger spotted a plant they’d never seen before,and the science is in — it’s a previously unknown species.
Not only that,genetic analysis shows that the plant is an entirely new genus of daisy.
The plant was first discovered in March 2024,according to a news release from the National Park Service. The two workers noticed some very tiny,fuzzy plants among the desert rocks in a remote area of the Texas park. They snapped some photos and compared them against species databases,herbarium records,plant taxonomy publications and ran the photos by area experts. The two even posted the photos online to try to crowdsource any information about the mysterious plant,but it soon became clear that there was nothing previously written about them.
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The plant was officially named Ovicula biradiata. Ovicula means tiny sheep,inspired by the furry appearance of the leaves. Biradiata refers to the ray petals darting out of each flower. Researchers have also called the plant “wooly” or “wooly devil.”
“Now that the species has been identified and named,there is a tremendous amount we have yet to learn about it,” Big Bend National Park Superintendent Anjna O’Connor said. “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.”
The area has been under “exceptional drought” conditions since November,the most serious category on the U.S. Drought Monitor map. The park has been under some level of drought since Feb. 2024.
According to the news release,“Big Bend National Park has exceptional biodiversity due to its large size (801,165 acres) and wide range of habitat types,including riparian ecosystems,low desert bajadas,and sky island woodlands at higher elevations.”
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Recent scientific discoveries in the park include a fossil record of a new species of duck-billed dinosaur,according to the Big Bend Sentinel and evidence of a species of oak previously thought to be extinct.
