From a Herbarium Specimen to the Lava Fields
The project's origins can be traced back to a single herbarium specimen collected in 1962 near Caleta Tagus. For decades, it was the only evidence the plant existed at all. Patricia Jaramillo Díaz, a senior researcher at the Charles Darwin Research Station, recalled returning to that cabinet again and again, asking the same question: does this plant still exist?
That curiosity sparked a 1998 investigation into the remote, jagged lava fields of the northern Isabela island. The reality discovered there was dire. By 2007, the species had collapsed to just six surviving individuals, clinging to narrow cracks within the young volcanic flows of Darwin Volcano. This extreme vulnerability, a legacy of historical grazing by introduced herbivores, had left the species on the verge of extinction.
“Standing beside those plants, it became clear that we were looking at much more than a rare shrub. Losing them would mean losing an irreplaceable part of the Galápagos' botanical heritage,”
- says Patricia Jaramillo Díaz, the lead author of the study.
A Science-Driven Rescue
To prevent extinction, the Galápagos Verde 2050 (GV2050) program combined nursery propagation with careful field reintroduction. As detailed in the published article, the program successfully outplanted 94 nursery-grown shrubs into the harsh volcanic landscapes of Isabela between 2017 - 2024.
Keeping these plants alive in such a dry environment required finding better ways to help them establish. The team tested different approaches to conserve water. Among them, the Groasis Waterboxx® was particularly effective, achieving 100% survival among the transplants tested. The researchers also learned that young plants first invest their energy in developing strong roots before showing much growth above ground. This helped the team determine when plants were ready to leave the nursery and be planted in the wild, improving their chances of survival.
The Milestone: A New Generation Appears
In 2021, researchers monitoring the reintroduced population at Playa Tortuga Negra found four naturally recruited seedlings growing in cracks in the lava rock. Their emergence marked an important milestone: it showed that the restored plants were flowering, producing viable seeds, and generating new seedlings naturally in the wild. However, the young plants did not survive the drought that followed. Rather than diminishing the significance of this first natural recruitment, their loss highlighted the next challenge for the recovery of the species: helping future generations survive increasingly dry conditions. As Patricia Jaramillo Díaz says:
“True restoration begins when nature no longer depends on us.”
Restoring the Historical Range
In 2024, the project reached its most important milestone thus far, reintroducing the snapdragon to Caleta Tagus, the same site where the 1962 herbarium specimen was originally collected. More than 60 years after that specimen was pressed and filed away, the Galápagos snapdragon has returned to its historical home. Today, 8 plants thrive at this site.
“Looking back today, I do not think first about the number of seedlings we planted or the kilometers we walked across lava fields. I think about the people: the park rangers who protected restoration sites, field assistants who carried plants across difficult terrain, nursery staff who cared for thousands of seedlings, researchers who designed experiments, and students and volunteers whose enthusiasm sustained this project over the years,”
- Patricia Jaramillo Díaz reflects.
The findings present the project as a scalable blueprint for restoring endangered island endemics in other similar environments, demonstrating how historical botanical archives and modern adaptive management can work together to pull a species back from the edge of extinction.
“Conservation begins with curiosity, advances through science, and succeeds through collaboration,” concludes Jaramillo Díaz.
Current status
Today, 28 adult plants are established across the two restoration sites — 20 at Playa Tortuga Negra and 8 at Caleta Tagus. Water scarcity remains the main challenge to their long-term recovery, particularly for the establishment of new seedlings. After years of research, we now have the knowledge and practical tools to propagate, establish, and care for this species more effectively. The next step is to turn that knowledge into sustained conservation action, building on the long-standing collaboration between the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos National Park Directorate so that propagation, monitoring, and long-term management can increasingly support the species’ recovery. These methods are also available in the recently published Flora Nativa y Endémica de las Islas Galápagos: Guía de propagación (Jaramillo et al., 2025), providing a practical resource to help carry this work forward.
Original source:
Jaramillo Díaz P, Charette C, Calle-Loor A, Espinosa-Ortega N, Mayorga P, Zambrano D, Chango R, Velasco N (2026) Advances in the recovery of Galvezia leucantha subsp. leucantha (Plantaginaceae): restoring a critically endangered species on northern Isabela Island, Galápagos. Nature Conservation 64: 111-133. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.64.177895