The discovery of the new crawling sunflower in the National Garden of Texas

Researchers discovered an unknown member of the Sunflower family in the Big Bend National Park in Texas – the first time that a new vegetarian race and species in an American national park has been determined for nearly five decades.

Venus, called Osila Praadiata It is called “Wooly Devil”, described in a Ticket February was published in Phytokeys. The Big Bend National Park of Plant Specialists is well known, which confirms the fact that even the widely studied areas can still achieve surprises.

“While many assume that plants and animals inside the national parks in our country have now been documented, scientists are still dragging new sudden discoveries in these famous protected landscapes,” says Isaac Lisk Mark, a manufacturer of the California Academy of Sciences and authorized in the study, says. statement.

He said to buy Mark O. bidiata It belongs to the sunflower family, although it immediately does not resemble its radioactive relatives, which resembles the sun.

He added: “After its DNA sequence and its comparison with other samples in the herbs in the academy, we discovered that this mysterious small plant is not only a new type within the group of sunflower, but it is also distinguished by enough of its closest relatives to ensure completely new sex.” A sex It is the biological classification between species and family.

One of the volunteers in the park first noticed The Wooly Devil in March 2024 and uploaded his information to the community science application called Insaturalist. This small plant is characterized by white chores and Maron’s chart Flowers (Petroleum parts of the flower head). Plant scientists call it “abdominal plant” because it is easier to monitor when lying down. It flourishes in rocky, dry and blossom habitats only after the rains.

“The plants that flourish in deserts are often unique, as specific mechanisms have evolved to endure the severe conditions of drought and meet these arid landscapes-from the stalled water structures to the rapidly shining life cycles,” explained to buy Marcak. “But as climate change pushes deserts to become hotter, more dry, and very specialized plants such as Devil Wooly extinction.” Lestec added that the team did not notice this factory except in three narrow locations on the northern edge of the garden, which raised the possibility that they had already recorded a decrease.

“Ovicula” means “small sheep”, which refer to the leaves of the plant and the Big Bind Bighor, while “Bidiata”, this means “Bi-Radial”, highlights maroon lines.

“Now that the species have been identified and named, there is a huge amount that we have not learned yet,” said Caroline Whiteing, a plant storm in the Big Bend Park, Agels and a co -author of the study. She hopes to find other groups of The Wooly Devil elsewhere in the park, as well as learn more about her life cycle and reproductive processes. Witang said that since drought is currently hitting the area, it is not known whether the new plants will appear later this spring.

Once again in the laboratory, the researchers documented the presence of the glands on the Sufi Satan found that he possessed anti -cancer and anti -inflammatory vehicles in other members of the sunflower family. While these characteristics still need to be emphasized in the new species, the California Academy of Sciences “Kelly Berralla”, another author of the authors of the study, said: “This discovery emphasizes the potential knowledge that we benefit from maintaining the diversity of the plant in fragile desert ecosystems.”