OU’s Robert Bebb Herbarium is a vault of about 280,000 dead plants dating back to the early 1900s.
“We have over 200 of these cabinets that are pretty much full of plant specimens,” collections manager Amy Buthod said.
One of those specimens is a sample of Geocarpon minimum — Tiny Tim. And it lives up to its name. It’s no bigger than a thumbnail.
Amateur naturalist Lisa Miller was the one who first discovered Tiny Tim in Oklahoma in 2023 near Skiatook Lake.
“It’s succulent in nature, but very thin, like a thin succulent. So it has, like a very fragile stem. And then the flower part is a little bit bulbous. And over time, once it matures — that’s going to be, like, in late March — it does turn red,” Miller said.
With help from the Oklahoma Biological Survey, including botanist Amy Buthod, several more populations of the plant have been found in Oklahoma. But none of those subsequent discoveries were as exciting as the first.
“I crawled around on the ground for a little bit, and sure enough, I found it,” Miller said.
Species on the Endangered Species List come up for review every five years. It’s Tiny Tim’s turn in 2026, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing the plant be delisted, saying this “underscores the administration’s commitment to reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens.”
But the agency says the decision is also rooted in sound science. Simply put: Tiny Tim is more widespread than previously thought. And we know that because of citizen scientists like Lisa Miller.
“That’s a success story,” Miller said. You want a federally endangered species to be delisted because, as it turns out, it has a healthy population. That’s a good thing. That’s what we want.”
Jena Donnell is a communications specialist with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.
“This a great example of how reporting sightings, nature sightings, can really help biologists learn about a species or even track our state’s natural resources,” Donnell said. “So even if a snake or a plant or a bird that is reported today, even if it’s known to the state or if it is maybe common at this time, it can really give biologists an important snapshot of the species.”
Citizen Scientists can reach out to the Wildlife Department, or the Biological Survey directly. But there are online communities where citizen scientists report their findings and interact with experts.
“Two of the more popular are iNaturalist and eBird,” Donnell said. “And they’re going to collect all the information that biologists need. So, basically, who saw the thing, what they saw and when and where they saw it.”
iNaturalist is frequented by both Amy Buthod and Lisa Miller.
“The nice thing is both of those platforms allow you to obscure your records. So you can still get all the important information there, but kind of protect your privacy a little bit,” Donnell said. “Or maybe it’s a rare species that’s sensitive to human disturbance. You can kind of protect it a little bit. And you can also add photos and recordings. Really, it’s the simplest way to really get involved in conversation.”
As for Tiny Tim itself, delisting is not assured. The public comment period is open now. And Amy Buthod certainly plans to comment. She says there are still too many questions about the plant’s resiliency and a lack of data, and she hears the same from botanists in surrounding states.
“This species fluctuates in numbers so much from year to year,” Buthod said. “You can go to a site one year, and there will be just a few plants. And then you’ll go back to the same site the next year, and there will be hundreds of plants. And so it will go back and back and forth. And no one really understands the dynamics behind that.”
