Specialists Discover Four New Plant Species in the Central Zone of the Country

After years of research and analysis at the EIF Herbarium, the species discovered between the O'Higgins and La Araucanía regions are threatened by human activity and join the genera "Miersia" and "Gilliesia". The study was published in the prestigious journal PhytoKeys and covers all the work on these four new species in the country, which are also relatives of garlic and onion.

Not one, not two. Specialists from the Faculty of Forestry Sciences and Nature Conservation at the University of Chile have discovered four species of bulbous plants in the central zone of Chile. The work, published in the journal PhytoKeys, was led by the curator of the EIF Herbarium, Nicolás García, along with young naturalists from the O'Higgins and Valparaíso regions, Paula Zúñiga-Acevedo, Matías González, Matías Espinoza, Constanza Soto, and Benjamín Cisternas, contributing new information on Chile's biodiversity.

The plants described after a long taxonomic and methodological analysis correspond to two new species of the genus Miersia —Miersia nahuelbutensis and Miersia subandina— and two of the genus Gilliesia: Gilliesia reflexa and Gilliesia taguataguensis. "The four new species were discovered independently over a period of approximately 6 years," highlights botany expert Nicolás García, about these discoveries which correspond to plants related to garlic and onion.

"We studied the flower shapes of these species in detail to describe them and compare them with other similar species, always taking into account all previous literature on the tribe Gilliesieae. Furthermore, we sequenced some DNA regions to incorporate the new species into the known evolutionary framework for this group and thus be sure of the genus to which they belong," explains the specialist.

Unique and Endangered Distribution

Furthermore, the study determines that the species have unique distributions considering Chile's diversity. While M. subandina, G. reflexa, and G. taguataguensis inhabit only the O'Higgins region, M. nahuelbutensis can be found in the Biobío and La Araucanía regions. Thus, these new plants are found, according to the study, mainly on Andean slopes, within sclerophyllous forest, and in coastal ravines.

According to Nicolás García, curator of the EIF Herbarium – which turns 60 years old in 2026 – it is noteworthy that "they are species with very restricted distributions that inhabit some of the most populated areas of the country, which makes them highly threatened in terms of their conservation."

All four species are threatened, according to the specialist, and subject to ecosystems that have been degraded by human action. A particular case is the habitat of M. nahuelbutensis, which "has been replaced by more than 90% with forestry plantations," adding to the latent danger of forest fires, changes in land use, and various activities.

The discovered plant species, according to the study, are extremely restricted to particular localities, making them areas requiring protection for their future care and conservation.