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Guest blog post by John L. Clark

In 2016, I was in the midst of a major professional transition. After years in a tenured university position, I had moved into independent-school teaching and was directing my first extended international field course for the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey. My goal was simple: give students firsthand experience in how biodiversity research actually happens—how field observations become scientific knowledge.

That March, I led 13 students into Ecuador’s Pastaza Valley on the eastern slopes of the Andes. We established two remote camps along a steep trail beginning near the Pastaza River and hiked toward Páramo, the high-elevation grasslands above treeline. The programme focused on documenting plant diversity: observing carefully, photographing plants, recording habitat data, and learning why details matter.

We expected a rewarding day of exploration in a spectacular landscape. What we did not expect was to encounter three plant species unknown to science, all in a single day along the same trail.

Those discoveries became the basis of a newly accepted PhytoKeys paper describing three new species of Glossoloma (Gesneriaceae) from the Cerro Candelaria Reserve. But this story is about more than taxonomy. It also illustrates how conservation works in practice, through visionary leadership, local stewardship, and sustained support.

Meet Glossoloma: upside-down flowers and unexpected climbers

Glossoloma is a genus of Neotropical plants recognised for resupinate flowers, meaning the blossoms appear upside-down relative to the typical orientation. Most species are stout, unbranched terrestrial subshrubs with colorful flowers that stand out in Andean forests.

The three species we discovered are unusual because they are nomadic climbers. Instead of remaining self-supporting, they germinate in the soil and climb nearby vegetation, sometimes persisting higher on trunks and branches.

The setting: Ecuador’s rich, complex and vulnerable Pastaza Valley

The upper Río Pastaza Valley is one of the Andes’ most remarkable biodiversity regions. Moist air from the Amazon Basin rises through this deep valley and meets successive mountain ridges, creating steep gradients in rainfall, temperature, and habitat over short distances. These transitions foster exceptional diversity and endemism.

Yet the region has experienced significant forest loss since the 1970s due to agricultural expansion and land-use change. Much original forest now survives only in fragments, making protected reserves essential. The forest where these species were found persists because of a unique alignment of conservation efforts—a true “conservation trifecta.”

Why these names? Conservation stories written into taxonomy

Scientific names can honor the people and partnerships that make discovery and conservation possible. Each of the three new species recognises a different kind of contribution.

Glossoloma jostii honors Lou Jost, botanist, conservationist, and co-founder of Fundación EcoMinga. His work has helped establish reserves and bring international attention to the Pastaza Valley as a biodiversity hotspot, demonstrating how scientific insight and persistence can translate into lasting protection.

Glossoloma puroanum honors Puro Coffee, founded by Andy Orchard, whose support through the World Land Trust helped establish and sustain the Cerro Candelaria Reserve. Conservation depends not only on research but also on reliable financial support for land protection, management, and the people safeguarding these forests.

Glossoloma recaldeorum honors the Recalde family of El Placer, long-time park guards and local stewards. Their daily presence, including monitoring trails, observing wildlife, and protecting the reserve, illustrates how conservation ultimately relies on committed local guardianship.

Discovering three species in one day

Rather than promising immediate discovery, field courses aim to teach observation and critical thinking. Yet along the Cerro Candelaria trail, each unfamiliar plant raised the same question: could this really be undescribed? As evidence accumulated, curiosity turned into excitement.

For students, the realisation was powerful, as  biodiversity shifted from a classroom abstraction to a live and evolving data set. Meanwhile, for me, after nearly a decade studying Glossoloma, finding three new species on a single trail was both thrilling and humbling. It emphasises how much remains unknown, even in relatively well-studied groups, and how urgent documentation can be in threatened landscapes.

Why taxonomy matters

Taxonomy is sometimes misunderstood as simply naming organisms. In reality, it provides the framework that allows biology and conservation to function. Before a species can be protected, we must first know it exists and understand where it occurs.

By linking these plants to the people who helped protect their habitat, I hope this work does more than add three names to a checklist. It shows that taxonomy makes biodiversity visible, measurable, and ultimately protectable, while recognising the collaborative efforts that allowed these species, and their forest, to persist long enough to be discovered.

Conservation is a shared effort

The Cerro Candelaria Reserve exists because leadership, funding, and local stewardship converged. These three new Glossoloma species are living evidence of what such collaboration can safeguard.

If there is one lesson from this discovery, it is that conservation works best when it is shared across scientists, communities, donors, and organisations, and sustained over time.

Original source:

Clark JL (2026) Commemorating a conservation trifecta: Three new species of Glossoloma (Gesneriaceae) honoring a donor, a family of forest stewards, and a conservation visionary. PhytoKeys 271: 173-185. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.271.181141