Despite the value of Chilean flora, 46% of the species, currently evaluated, are critically endangered or endangered, so ex situ conservation measures are key to their preservation. We analyzed the current state and conservation gaps of the native species preserved in the Seed Base Bank (SBB) of the Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), the main curator of Chile's plant genetic resources. Our analysis showed that 3,040 seed accessions of native species are preserved in the SBB, corresponding to 1,256 species, which represents 26.9% of the Chilean flora. The area with the largest number of accessions collected corresponds to the northern and central parts of the country, indicating that there has been a bias in terms of concentrating efforts on the continental regions and ignoring other important geographical regions of Chile, such as those located in the insular territory. A quarter of the threatened plants belonging to the Chilean flora are not currently conserved in the SBB, as they are vascular species without seeds, which cannot be protected in the long term under the traditional conditions of a seed bank. Additional collection and research efforts are required to increase the collection of native species in the SBB, especially threatened and endemic species.

A new species, Diplostephium paposanum S.T.Ibáñez & Muñoz-Schick, sp. nov., is described for Chile, extending the southern distribution of the genus. Its position within the genus was confirmed by morphological and molecular data, discussed here. The new species was found in a coastal environment, new to the genus, and is geographically far removed from the other Chilean species, which are from the Andes. The formation where it occurs, known as lomas, acts as a biodiversity refuge in hyperarid environments. The presence of D. paposanum in this environment contributes to the evidence of a floristic connection between the Atacama Desert and the Neotropical Andes.