Over the past 20 years, several expeditions were made to northern Chile to collect populations of wild tomatoes (Solanum chilense, S. peruvianum) and allied nightshades (S. lycopersicoides, S. sitiens), and obtain information about their geographic distribution, ecology and reproductive biology. Restricted mainly to drainages of the Andean and the coastal cordillera, populations are geographically fragmented. The two nightshade species are rare and threatened by human activities. Adaptation to extreme aridity and soil salinity are evident in S. chilense and S. sitiens (the latter exhibits several xerophytic traits not seen in the tomatoes) and to low temperatures in S. lycopersicoides and S. chilense. All tested accessions are selfincompatible, with the exception of one S. peruvianum population collected at the southern limit of its distribution. Several distinguishing reproductive traits-anther color, attachment, and dehiscence, pollen size, and flower scent-suggest S. sitiens and S. lycopersicoides attract different pollinators than S. chilense and S. peruvianum. The four Solanum spp. native or endemic to Chile provide a variety of novel traits which, through hybridization and introgression with cultivated tomato, could facilitate development of improved varieties, as well as research on a variety of basic topics, including plant-pollinator interactions, abiotic stress responses, and evolution of reproductive barriers.

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Kieslingia chilensis, a new genus and species of tribe Astereae (Asteraceae) from northern Chile restricted to the Huasco river basin of the Andes pre-mountain Range in the Atacama region is described and illustrated. The combination of its diagnostic characters including discoid homogamous capitula, alveolate epaleate receptacles, and deeply trifid leaves, is not found in any other species of South American Astereae.  An ITS phylogenic analysis placed Kieslingia chilensis within subtribe Hinterhuberinae, and sister to the genus Guynesomia, also endemic to Chile.  The morphological characteristics of Kieslingia chilensis are compared and contrasted to sister taxa as identified by the molecular phylogenetic studies and the environmental features of the area where the species is found are discussed.  A key to distinguish Kieslingia from other Astereae genera of northern Chile is given.  Based on IUCN criteria and categories we assign the Endangered (EN) category to Kieslingia chilensis.

A new legume species, Weberbauerella chilensis, from the Andean foothills in the Tarapacá region in Chile, is described and illustrated. This species represents the first record of the genus in Chile and the Southern Cone of South America and is the third species described for the genus. Weberbauerella chilensis resembles W. brongnartioides from Peru, but differs primarily in its smaller size, fewer leaflets and habitat conditions.