The Wooly Devil, or Ovicula biradiata​, was first spotted by botany volunteer Deb Manley and a park ranger in Big Bend National Park in Texas in March 2024.

New Plant Species Discovered at Big Bend National Park . Close up view of "Wooly Devil." Photo credit: NPS / D. Manley. February 25, 2025 – BIG BEND NATIONAL PARK, TX – In Big

Spanning 801,165 acres and featuring a mix of riparian ecosystems, desert bajadas, and sky island woodlands, Big Bend National Park is a biodiversity treasure. Other cool finds here recently include the fossil of a new duck-billed dinosaur species ( Malefica deckerti) and the rediscovery of an oak ( Quercus tardifolia) once thought extinct.

The tiny species was previously unknown to science, according to a further investigation by the National Park Service.

Two staff members at Big Bend National Park have discovered a new plant. In March 2024, a volunteer with the Big Bend National Park botany program and a supervisory interpretive park ranger first noticed some very tiny plants sprinkled among the desert rocks in a remote area in the northern reaches of the park.