For nearly 50 years, researchers from the U.S. National Park System hadn’t found any new plants—but that changed with the discovery of a fuzzy sunflower. After a chance sighting in 2024, the “wooly devil” (aka Ovicula biradiata) officially became the first new plant species (and genus!) added to the encyclopedia in decades. Here’s what researchers at Big Bend National Park are saying about this hardy rare bloom.

How the New Sunflower Discovery Happened

Deb Manley initially spotted the wooly devil in the north-most section of Big Bend National Park about a year ago. A team of researchers collaborated and quickly identified it as a “belly plant,” which, according to the press release, is a “small, discreet plant that can only be properly observed by lying on the ground.”

It’s part of the sunflower family, but you probably wouldn’t guess by looking at it—the sunflower has furry white foliage and maroon ray florets. “O. biradiata is a member of the sunflower family, although it does not resemble its sunburst-shaped relatives at first glance,” said academy researcher Isaac Lichter Marck, PhD, in the press release.

“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 continued.

Researchers found that the plant thrives in especially harsh, rocky soil in the Chihuahuan desert and—get this—only blooms after it rains. The name was inspired by its fuzzy exterior and red stripping: Ovicula means “tiny sheep” (because of the fuzz), and Biradiata means “bi-radial,” after the two ray florets.

How Rare Is This Discovery, Really?

“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,” Lichter Marck said. But a plant discovery of this magnitude is rare: The last discovery of a new National Park plant was in 1976 when researchers named the July gold shrub (Dedeckera eurekenis) in Death Valley.

Finding new plants in the desert is yet another uncommon feat, with the wooly devil only thriving in scarce locations alongside drought-tolerant shrubs like ocotillo, hedgehog cactus, and creosote. Unfortunately, researchers fear that this special sunflower may already be facing extinction due to warming climates.

“As climate change pushes deserts to become hotter and drier, highly specialized plants like the wooly devil face extinction,” Lichter Marck explained. “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,”

While the fate of the wooly devil remains to be seen, National Park tourists make their own unique discoveries by uploading their findings to the iNaturalist app. The researchers say to pay particular attention to what you find after spring rains.