“Mystery of Manu”

Aenigmanu alvareziae

An Tree in the Amazon Rainforest Left Scientists Scratching Their Heads for 50 Years

“When I first saw this little tree, while out on a forest trail leading from the field station, it was the fruit — looking like an orange-colored Chinese lantern and juicy when ripe with several seeds — that caught my attention,” says Robin Foster,

He was a scientist who collected the mystery plant in Peru’s Manu National Park, a retired curator at Chicago’s Field Museum.

The plant was about 20 feet tall, with small and tiny orange fruits shaped like paper lanterns.The fruit — looks like an orange-colored Chinese lantern and juicy

when ripe with several seeds.

But, in a new study in the journal Taxon, scientists analyzed the plant’s DNA and determined where it belongs in the family tree of trees, finally giving it a name .

The DNA analysis revealed that the mystery plant’s closest relatives were in the Picramniaceae family.

The Scientific name given to this plants was , Aenigmanu alvareziae. The genus name, Aenigmanu, means “mystery of Manu,” while, the species name is in honor of Patricia Álvarez-Loayza, who collected the first specimens used for the genetic analysis. This plant was new to scientist but,it has been used for long time by the ”Machiguenga people”

Reference: “Aenigmanu, A New Genus of Picramniaceae from Western Amazonia” by William Wayt Thomas, Nancy Hensold, Robin Foster, Richard H. Ree and Raimundo

Luciano Soares Neto, 6 October 2021, Taxon.

Aniket Ahir

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