On a steep cliff of Robinson Crusoe Island, part of Chile's Juan Fernández archipelago, a roughly 150-year-old tree clings to the rock. It is the only known wild specimen of Dendroseris neriifolia, a tree-like member of the daisy family. To keep it from tumbling off — and taking the whole species with it — specialists have secured the tree with ropes. Now a rescue attempt has succeeded that gives the species at least a future under glass.
Dendroseris neriifolia was once widespread in the island's lowlands. But introduced goats, destroyed habitats, fire, erosion and other invasive species hammered its numbers. By the 1980s only eight individuals were known; later replanting efforts failed — and since 2017 just this one tree has remained, with only a few still-living branches.
In a daring operation, a team led by botanist Diego Penneckamp of the VerdeNativo garden gathered around 400 seeds by shaking them into nets. The harvest then travelled to the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in Britain, arriving in April 2026. X-ray images revealed that only a fraction of the seeds were viable at all: of 29 examined more closely, 25 were judged potentially alive. The many empty seeds are attributed to the genetic bottleneck the drastically shrunken species has passed through.
Seventeen of the seeds are now stored in the seed bank as a reserve. From eight others the botanists actually raised seedlings: five stay at Kew, three go to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh in Scotland. A further young specimen is already growing in the VerdeNativo garden.
Taken on its own it is only a tree — yet the Juan Fernández islands rank among the places richest in species found nowhere else. Every plant saved preserves a piece of that singular evolution. If the seedlings can be grown into mature, seed-bearing trees, Dendroseris neriifolia would, for the first time in a long while, have a realistic chance of survival.