'Extinctus,' Long-Lost South American Wildflower Has Finally Been Found After 40 Years

This South American wildflower was thought to be extinct, hence its scientific name is Gasteranthus extinctus. Scientists have now reported the first confirmed sightings in 40 years.

This indicates that not only did this one small flower survive, but also an essential concept in conservation biology known as Centinelan extinction needs to be reconsidered.

Once extinct now finally found again

(Photo : JOE KLAMAR/AFP via Getty Images))

Scientific names are selected for a variety of reasons, including honoring an important person or hinting at what an organism looks like or where it came from.

The scientific term "extinctus" was a warning for a tropical wildflower originally reported by scientists in 2000.

The orange wildflower had been discovered 15 years earlier in an Ecuadorian forest that had now been extensively devastated; the scientists who named it feared that it had already been extinct by the time they named it.

Researchers describe the first verified observations of Gasteranthus extinctus in 40 years in a recent publication published in PhytoKeys.

According to Dawson White, the striking name Extinctus was given in light of the widespread deforestation in western Ecuador, a postdoctoral researcher at Chicago's Field Museum and co-lead author of the publication.

"But if you say something is extinct, no one is going to go out and seek for it anymore; there are still a lot of significant species out there, even though we're in this period of extinction," as per ScienceDaily.

The newly found plant is a little forest floor dweller with bright neon-orange blossoms.

"The genus name, Gasteranthus, is Greek for 'belly flower,' and its blossoms have a huge pouch on the bottom with a tiny aperture top where pollinators may enter and escape," White explains.

The newly found plant is a little forest floor dweller with bright neon-orange blossoms.

Gasteranthus is Greek for "belly flower" because the plants have a large pouch on the bottom with a little aperture on top allowing pollinators to enter and escape, as per DailyMail.

G. extinctus is found in the Andes mountain foothills when the ground flattens to a plane that was originally covered in the cloud forest.

The story of Centinela

The Centinela Ridge is famous among biologists for being home to a unique group of plants that perished when the region's woods were nearly totally devastated in the 1980s.

Late biologist, E. O. Wilson even coined the term "Centinelan extinction" to describe the phenomena of species going extinct immediately when their little home is destroyed.

The Centinela narrative also served as a wake-up call, drawing attention to the fact that over 97% of the woods in Ecuador's western half had been cut and turned to agriculture.

What remains is a lovely mosaic of little forest islands within a sea of bananas and a few other crops.

Centinela is a magical spot for tropical botanists said lead author Nigel Pitman of the Chicago Field Museum.

However, because it was explained by the field's top experts, no one double-checked the research.

However, by the time Gasteranthus extinctus was published in 2000, scientists had previously demonstrated that some victims of Centinelan extinction were not truly extinct.

Since 2009, a number of scientists have led missions in search of G. extinctus, but they were all in vain.

However, when White and Pitman got funds from the Field Museum's Women's Board to visit the Centinela Ridge, they and their team had the opportunity to check for themselves.