Researchers find rare tropical flower in Ecuador thought to be extinct for 36 years

A rare orange wildflower thought to be extinct for 36 years has been rediscovered in South America.

The wildflower Gasteranthus extinctus has only been seen in the cloud forest of Ecuador and was last documented in 1985, according to a new study published in the journal PhytoKeys.

Scientists saw a bleak future for the flower, so they called it “extinctus” because they believed it would soon die, said co-author Dawson White, a postdoctoral researcher at the Field Museum in Chicago.

Most of the cloud forest suffered deforestation in the years that followed. Habitat loss is believed to have killed off dozens of species, White said.

The researchers decided to take another look at western Ecuador in 2021 to see if there were still patches of forest and look for the species that lived there. Within days, the flower was found, White said.

“It was a total joy because Gasteranthus extinctus is a symbol of these unique forests,” White said.

The team collected samples to later confirm the DNA of the plant, which was scattered in clumps in small sections of the remaining forest.

a lucky moment

After the magnificent rediscovery, team member Riley Fortier checked the nature app iNaturalist to see if anyone else had taken a similar photo, White said.

A joint initiative of the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society of the United States, iNaturalist is a biodiversity observation network where people can post photos of plants, birds and other finds in the wild to help with identification.

The researchers found photos of the wildflower posted in 2019 by a group of Ecuadorian students who were enjoying a walk in a small conservation area.

“They were on a trip a little bit north of where we were collecting and they sure as hell took two pictures of Gasteranthus extinctus, but they couldn’t identify it as such,” White said.

He was able to track students down to learn more details about their encounter and include their observations in the scientific paper.

Gasteranthus extinctus is not well known in Ecuador, but another member of its family, the African violet, is, said Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, a botanist and curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. She did not participate in the study.

“Many people probably have an African violet in their homes, but very few of the native Ecuadorian plants are grown as ornamentals,” she said.

working against the clock

Although no longer considered extinct, the wildflower is still endangered, White said.

Despite the devastation that the forest is suffering, the Ecuadorian government continues to destroy the forest for its own benefit, which has wreaked havoc in this part of the country, he explained.

The Ecuadorian government redistributed land to the working class in the 1950s and 1960s, White said.

People cut down trees to grow cocoa beans and bananas, most of which end up in the United States, he added.

“We were with local landowners and they told us about their plans to continue to cut down some of these small forests that still remain,” White said.

Ulloa Ulloa grew up in Ecuador and saw deforestation firsthand, but as an adult, she understood the delicate balance between the need to protect the environment and finding ways to make money.

“You have to protect the forest, but you also have to feed the people of the country,” Ulloa Ulloa said.

One solution is to invest in ecotourism, which invites tourists to enjoy the natural land, he said. It’s a way to protect the forest while boosting Ecuador’s economy, explained Ulloa Ulloa.

Research teams that traveled to Ecuador before and after White’s team discovered nearly half a dozen plant species new to science. The teams that discovered the new species hope to publish their findings later this year, he said.

White’s goals are to conserve the cloud forest environment while continuing to inventory the newly discovered species, he said.