Dendroseris Neriifolia Seedlings Find New Home in Scotland

New seedlings grown from the seeds of the last known wild Dendroseris neriifolia tree have arrived at Logan Botanic Garden in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, after an international rescue effort to keep the species alive. The arrival, reported by BBC News on September 17, 2026, gives one of the world's rarest trees a foothold thousands of miles from its only natural home.

Dendroseris neriifolia is a "tree daisy" native to Robinson Crusoe Island, part of Chile's Juan Fernandez Archipelago, a tiny volcanic outpost in the South Pacific off the Chilean coast. The species is listed as Critically Endangered. Its entire wild population is one tree on a steep cliff face, held in place with ropes so it does not fall. The tree has drooping, elongated leaves and small yellow-white flowers, and it was once native to continental Chile before retreating to the island.

A slow slide toward extinction

Dendroseris neriifolia has been disappearing for decades. By 1980, only a handful of wild specimens were left, worn down by forest clearance, grazing from introduced mammals, invasive plants and repeated fires. Reintroduction efforts in the early 2000s tried to rebuild the population, but protective measures broke down in 2017 and invasive species moved back into the site, according to PA reporting.

Robinson Crusoe Island is known for unusual biodiversity, and much of it is under pressure. Introduced plants and animals outcompete or damage native flora across the archipelago, and repeated fires have cleared habitat that slow-growing island species cannot quickly reclaim. For Dendroseris neriifolia, there is no backup in the wild: a single storm, landslide or disease outbreak could wipe out the last tree at any time.

Four hundred seeds, one last chance

Conservationists collected 400 seeds from the lone tree in May. Twenty-nine of them were sent to the Millennium Seed Bank at Kew Wakehurst in Sussex for testing and storage, and germination trials there produced eight seedlings. In a statement, Kew said its scientists were testing seed viability, germination and cultivation methods in an effort to prevent the species from disappearing entirely.

Two of the young plants have now travelled more than 300 miles north to Logan, where curator Richard Baines received them this week. The remaining seedlings stay at Kew Gardens and Kew Wakehurst. Logan was chosen for its mild, temperate microclimate, unusual for Scotland, and its long record of growing rare plants from the southern hemisphere. Conservationists say the conditions there suit Chilean species especially well, making the garden a natural second home for the young trees.

The rescue is a global collaboration between seed banks, botanical gardens, funders and government agencies in Chile and the UK, according to Kew. Growing threatened plants outside their natural habitat, a practice known as ex-situ conservation, is becoming more important as climate change and biodiversity loss accelerate. For a species down to its last wild tree, a backup population raised far from the threats on Robinson Crusoe Island is the only safety net.

For now, the young trees at Logan will be watched closely as they settle in. Island plants can be fussy in cultivation, and the gardeners' job is to learn what Dendroseris neriifolia needs to thrive, from soil and water to shelter from a Scottish winter. The seeds that did not germinate remain in the Millennium Seed Bank's storage as a long-term backup, so the rescue does not rest on the seedlings alone.

There is still a long way to go. Because every seed collected came from the same parent tree, the seedlings share a narrow genetic base, and only time will tell how they fare to maturity. But each healthy seedling is now among the most valuable plants in cultivation. If the Logan pair reach adulthood, they could one day produce seeds of their own, giving the species a future that no longer hangs on a cliffside in the South Pacific. The rescue adds to a string of rare-plant finds covered here, from the devil flower discovered in Thailand to Madagascar's ninth baobab species. You can read Kew's announcement of the rescue effort and PA's report on the seedlings' arrival in Scotland for more detail.