00:00Scientists discover new woolly devil plant in Big Bend.
00:04After 50 years.
00:06Scientists found a new plant in Texas after nearly 50 years without such a national park discovery.
00:12A Big Bend ranger and a botany volunteer spotted the small fuzzy plant in March 2024.
00:20The woolly devil grows low to the ground, showing white hairs and tiny horn-like flower structures among desert stones.
00:28Researchers compared the plant with databases, herbarium records and expert photos before confirming a new genus and species.
00:37Big Bend National Park protects desert slopes, limestone ridges and remote ground where small plants can hide for decades.
00:45The woolly devil belongs to the sunflower family despite looking more like a strange desert fuzzball than a bright daisy.
00:52Botanists named the plant Avicula biradiata, with avicula referring to a tiny sheep-like appearance.
00:58Desert heat, rocky soil and scattered rain shape the plant's small body and low growth.
01:05Scientists must search carefully because one rare plant can blend into gravel under a bootstep.
01:10Big Bend's cliffs, washes, rocks and desert flats still hold life that researchers have never named.
01:17A magnifying lens hovers above white plant hairs, while Texas desert wind moves loose sand.
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