'Devil'-like flower with 'horns' found in Texas is new species. Its location is secret

Mitchell Willetts, The Charlotte Observer on Feb 20, 2025

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In a rugged stretch of desert in one of the nation’s most remote national parks, a volunteer’s eyes were caught by a colorful sight sprouting up from the beige and brown of the Chihuahuan Desert — “devil”-ish blooms, flowers like bright red horns.

The volunteer, Deb Manley, walked into the dusty basin and snapped a photo of the eye-catching plant, then shared it on iNaturalist — a social media platform for sharing pictures of flora and fauna. Whether they knew it or not, Manley had just revealed a brand new species to the world, according to researchers.

“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 researcher with the California Academy of Sciences said in a Feb. 18 news release. Marck is one of several researchers who authored a study on the plant recently published in the Journal PhytoKeys.

After Manley’s picture went up, researchers soon descended on Texas’ Big Bend National Park to get a closer look at the flower which none of them had ever seen before.

Through DNA analysis and comparisons to other plants known to science, researchers confirmed the plant was not only a new species, but a new genus, according to the study.

This marks the first time in roughly 50 years that a new genus of plant has been discovered in a U.S. national park, according to the California Academy of Sciences.

The team has taken to calling it the wooly devil for the dense fur-like fibers covering its leaves and because of the red-and-white flowers that bloom out and upward from its center.

The plant’s slightly less catchy Latin name, Ovicula biradiata, honors the bighorn sheep that roam the rocky expanse of Big Bend, with Ovis meaning “sheep,” researchers said.

Researchers said the wooly devil’s closest relative is a very well-known and much gentler looking plant.

“O. biradiata is a member of the sunflower family, although it does not resemble its sunburst-shaped relatives at first glance,” Marck said. “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.”

Though the wooly devil looks tough — and it is, it’s able to survive in Big Bend — it may be more delicate than it seems, according to researchers.

It’s small, usually between 1 to 3 inches across, poking out from between rocks and stones. Described as “ephemeral” by researchers, the wooly devils are relatively short-lived and while they grow in good numbers, they can only be found in three locations inside of an “extremely narrow range” of the park.

That narrow range “suggests that it is highly sensitive to variable weather patterns,” the study said. “Recently, this part of the Chihuahuan Desert has been under severe drought conditions and aridity is predicted to increase in this region due to climate change.”

Researchers said the wooly devil preliminarily qualifies as being “under a high threat of extinction” under recognized conservation guidelines.

In other words, this just-discovered plant could be dying off.

“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,” Marck said.

Due to the wooly devil’s precarious situation, researchers provided only a vague area where the plants can be found, no exact locations. It’s a secret, at least for now, and the geocoordinates are being withheld.

Researchers are hopeful that with further study, the wooly devil may reveal potentially life-saving secrets, study co-author Keily Peralta said in the release.

“Under the microscope, we noticed specific glands that are known to possess compounds with anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties in other plants within the sunflower family,” Peralta said. “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.”

Big Bend National Park is a roughly 430-mile drive southwest from Austin.

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