A near extinct plant in Galápagos is now recovering

A 30-year conservation effort has helped the critically endangered Galápagos snapdragon (Galvezia leucantha subsp. leucantha) recover from just six individuals to a small, carefully tended wild population. Following tireless conservation efforts and the planting of 94 nursery-propagated plants that were reintroduced to Playa Tortuga Negra and Caleta Tagus, the wild adult population has grown from six individuals in 2007 to 28 healthy adults today – 20 at Playa Tortuga Negra and 8 at Tagus Cove. In 2021, the project recorded its first evidence of natural seedling regeneration in the wild — a significant milestone demonstrating that the reintroduced plants were able to reproduce naturally and generate a new generation under wild conditions. Although these first naturally recruited seedlings did not survive a later drought, their emergence represents an important step toward a self-sustaining population and highlights the value of the long-term restoration effort. Their loss also underscores an important remaining challenge. Water scarcity remains one of the biggest ongoing threats to this critically endangered plant.The full study has been published in Nature Conservation, an open-access journal.