Professor Álvaro Pérez and his expedition companions hiked three days in a row to reach the Cerro Plateado reserve, the highest area of the Cordillera del Cóndor, on the border between Ecuador and Peru. It was the second time that a group of scientists came to the place. The goal of the trip was to collect the largest number of endemic plant species of this unexplored ecosystem. “As we stood at the top of the hill, in the middle of a gorge of granite rock, we saw something strange and beautiful that we had never seen before,” Professor Pérez recalls with emotion. A small carnivorous plant with tiny hairs on its brown leaves and a purple flower grew out of the rock walls. Pérez and his colleagues took photos, collected several samples, and brought them to the laboratories of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador in Quito. The first trip took place in 2016, the last in 2021.
At first glance, Pérez and his companions knew they had something else in mind. After examining the roots, leaves, and flowers in detail, they discovered that it was a species previously unknown to science. They named it Pinguicula ombrophila. “His name means lover of rain or lover of humidity,” explains Pérez, professor at the Faculty of Biology at the Catholic University, in an interview with EL PAÍS. It pays homage to the top of the Cordillera del Cóndor, full of moss, mist and freezing wind. The finding was published last week in an article signed by Pérez in the scientific journal Phytokeys; Francisco Tobar, scientist at the National Herbarium of Ecuador; Kevin Burgess, researcher at Ohio State University – Columbus in the United States; and Tilo Henning from the Leibniz Center for Agricultural Landscape Research in Germany, one of the world’s leading experts on carnivorous plants.
Species of the insectivorous genus Pinguicula L. discovered south of Ecuador.
In addition to the discovery of Pinguicula ombrophila, the article also describes the discovery of another new carnivorous plant species from Ecuador, Pinguicula jimburensis. This species was named in honor of the black lagoons of Jimburá, a high-altitude area in Yacurí National Park where it was found. Professor Pérez and his colleagues first saw it on the ground as they walked a path around the lagoons. “It’s in a wet wasteland bordering Peru,” he says. The interesting thing about this new species is the morphology of its leaves. “It differs from other similar plants in its elongated, reddish leaves, which serve to protect the plant from the sun’s rays in the bogs where it lives,” explains the scientist.
The habitat of the Pinguicula jimburensis is a swamp area. It lives in the company of numerous mosses and small shrubs, including a species of valerian discovered a few months ago. The plant measures a maximum of eight centimeters inclusive. It is a land herb with red leaves and purple flowers that feeds on small diptera, tiny flies that fly and fall on its leaves with the wind. The two new species catch their prey in a special way. “They have some glandular hairs on their leaves that secrete a sticky liquid that is used to make insects that approach them get stuck and die,” explains the researcher. As they decompose, the tiny flies release nitrogen from their exoskeleton. Plants take up nitrogen as a necessary element for their life cycle.
Species of the insectivorous genus Pinguicula L. discovered in southern Ecuador by Álvaro J. Pérez
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The article describes the results as follows: “We document two new endemic Pinguicula species from southern Ecuador as a result of recent botanical investigations. We perform detailed morphological analyzes for these new species, provide a taxonomic description, present images of all floral and vegetative structures of the plants, and provide a distribution map. The conservation status of the newly described species and their relationships to others are also discussed.
Professor Pérez explains that the cinematic idea of carnivorous plants that attract colorful insects and approach them to eat them is based on reality but represents a different family of carnivores. “This is how the famous Venus flytraps work, which are very different from the ones we found in Ecuador.” According to the researchers, these two new species contribute to the “extraordinary biodiversity of the area”. At the time of the double find, only one Pinguicula species was documented in Ecuador, which was found during Alexander von Humboldt’s botanical expedition at the beginning of the 19th century. “With these two new discoveries, it can be said that we have tripled this diversity and that there are now three carnivorous species for our country,” says Pérez Orgulloso.
Species of the insectivorous genus Pinguicula L. discovered south of Ecuador.
The discovery of these two new species of Andean flora helps to recognize these high mountain ecosystems as a critical point of biodiversity and, above all, can help to improve their conservation. “The habitat of these carnivorous plants urgently needs to be protected,” explains Pérez. Once the Pinguicula ombrophila was found, scientists classified it as an endangered species. He was just born for science and he was already in danger. The reasons: threats from climate change, increased temperatures in the paramo and human destruction of the ecosystem. “Finding these novelties is very interesting because it allows us to publicize the diversity of the region and the importance of caring for the forests and moors.”
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