The Apparating Moon-Gentian

The apparating moon-gentian (Macrocarpaea apparata) is a small tree belonging to the gentian family (Gentianaceae). Described in 2003, this species remains largely unknown outside specialist circles, yet its name and discovery tale link it to the magical world of Harry Potter.

The more than 100 members of the genus Macrocarpaea are collectively called moon-gentians. They are woody shrubs or small trees native to the Neotropics, especially the Andes. They typically produce large, pale, funnel-shaped flowers adapted for nocturnal (or nocturnally) pollinators, such as bats and moths, and diurnal (or diurnally) pollinators, such as hummingbirds, insects and butterflies.

The apparating moon-gentian stands out even within this distinctive group. It forms a sturdy tree reaching 4 to 5 metres in height, with a trunk up to about 6.5 centimetres in diameter. Yet, its most striking feature is its foliage: the leaves are among the largest known in the genus, measuring 25 to 60 centimetres long and up to 30 centimetres wide. Broadly ovate to elliptic, dark green, and covered in short hairs, they give sterile plants an almost tobacco-like appearance. The whitish-green flowers are funnel-shaped, 40 to 50 millimetres long, and appear in branched inflorescences.

The species is endemic to a small area in Parque Nacional Podocarpus and the surrounding Amotape–Huancabamba region of southern Ecuador, where it grows in wet montane rainforest and roadside secondary vegetation at elevations between roughly 1,600 and 2,450 metres.

Both its scientific name and English common name tell the story of its discovery. In February 2001, botanists Jason R. Grant and Lena Struwe were exploring some roadsides in the park[1]. For much of the afternoon they found only sterile individuals of an unusual plant and could not be certain of its identity. Just as rain set in and dusk approached, several flowering trees suddenly came into view, as if they had materialised from nowhere. The researchers were immediately reminded of the magical ability to 'apparate' — to disappear from one place and reappear in another — popularised in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998). They therefore named the new species Macrocarpaea apparata, and the plant is now known as the apparating moon-gentian.

Even forgetting the Harry Potter connection, this species shows us the extraordinary biodiversity of Ecuador’s cloud forests and the continued discovery of new plants, even in relatively accessible areas.

[1] De Macrocarpaea Grisebach (Ex Gentianaceis) speciebus Novis III: Six New Species of Moon-Gentians (Macrocarpaea, Gentinaceae) From Parque Nacional Podocarpus, Ecuador in JSTOR - 2003. See here.