Four flowering plants previously unknown to science have been described by a team led by Nicolás García, curator of the herbarium at the Universidad de Chile's Faculty of Forestry and Nature Conservation, with assistant Paula Zúñiga-Acevedo and a group of naturalists from the O'Higgins and Valparaíso regions. The new species, published in the journal PhytoKeys, are Miersia subandina, Miersia nahuelbutensis, Gilliesia reflexa and Gilliesia taguataguensis, members of a lineage of small, orchid-like flowers largely confined to central Chile.
Three of the four, Miersia subandina, Gilliesia reflexa and Gilliesia taguataguensis, occur only in the O'Higgins Region, while Miersia nahuelbutensis is tied to the Nahuelbuta range across the Biobío and La Araucanía regions. The conservation picture is immediately sobering: preliminary assessments rate Gilliesia reflexa as Critically Endangered, the final category before extinction in the wild, and the other three as Endangered. These are plants being introduced to science and to the risk register in the same paper.
The study also carries taxonomic weight, recommending a broader definition of Gilliesia that would absorb the genera Solaria, Gethyum and Ancrumia, informed by new phylogenetic analysis. The collaboration between a university herbarium and amateur naturalists is itself part of the story: central Chile is a recognised biodiversity hotspot, yet the authors argue much of its flora remains unknown, and trained local observers are increasingly how the gaps get found.