“In March 2024, Deb Manley, a volunteer in Big Bend National Park, Texas, uploaded photos of a small, low-lying plant covered in silvery fuzz to the species identification app iNaturalist. The app populates a public map with observations of plants and animals, which shows how frequently species are observed in a given area and can bring the user community together to tackle tricky identifications. Manley sparked one of those puzzles when she shared her photos of the plant, which she and other park staff had encountered on a hike. Curiosity soon gave way to excitement when users realized that the plant did not match any species known to science. Not only was this the first recorded sighting on iNaturalist, it was the first recorded sighting, period.”

From Atlas Obscura.