Meet The Wooly Devil, A New Plant Species Discovered At Big Bend National Park

NewSpeciesAlert:PreviouslyUndiscoveredPlantFoundAtBigBendNationalParkMeetthewoolydevil,anewlydiscoveredplantthatwasfoundinBigBendNationalParkinTexasin2024.Butit’snotjustanewspeciesofplant.It’sanentirelynewgenusofdaisynotpreviouslydocumented.Researchersstillhavealottolearnaboutthisnewplant,whichsportsfuzzyleavesanduniqueflowers.Here’sthestoryofhowitwasdiscovered. SignupfortheMorningBriefemailnewslettertogetweekdayupdatesfromTheWeatherChannelandourmeteorologists. ExcitingnewsoutofBigBendNationalPark:avolunteerinthepark’sbotanyprogramandasupervisoryinterpretiveparkrangerspottedaplantthey’dneverseenbefore,andthescienceisin—it’sapreviouslyunknownspecies. Notonlythat,geneticanalysisshowsthattheplantisanentirelynewgenusofdaisy. TheplantwasfirstdiscoveredinMarch2024,accordingtoanewsreleasefromtheNationalParkService.Thetwoworkersnoticedsomeverytiny,fuzzyplantsamongthedesertrocksinaremoteareaoftheTe