For nearly two centuries, it survived like a rumour in the margins of botanical history.
In 1836, British botanists recorded a climbing shrub with unusual blueberry-like fruits in the forests of Arunachal Pradesh. Then, it vanished from scientific records. No fresh sightings. No herbarium updates. No confirmed trace in the wild.
Now, 188 years later, that plant has resurfaced in one of India’s most remote forest landscapes.
Researchers have rediscovered Vaccinium piliferum — a rare wild relative of the blueberry — in the dense forests of Vijoynagar in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district, a region where rivers cut through thick Eastern Himalayan rainforest.
The rediscovery is being seen as a major botanical breakthrough for India’s biodiversity records, not just because the species was presumed lost for generations, but because scientists found only 16 individual plants surviving in the wild.
Found again in Arunachal’s forest corridors
The species was rediscovered by researchers from the Society for Education and Environmental Development (SEED), the CSIR-North East Institute of Science and Technology (NEIST), and collaborating institutions during field surveys in the Vijoynagar landscape.
The plants were located near tributaries of the Noa-Dihing River at elevations between 1,150 and 1,280 metres above sea level. Spread across nearly two square kilometres, the surviving plants were found growing far apart from one another — a sign of how fragile the population has become.
Unlike standard ground-hugging bushes, this wild variety is a climbing, tree-twining shrub that can grow up to 4.5 meters high. Photograph: (Facebook)
Since its first colonial-era documentation in the 19th century, Vaccinium piliferum had not been scientifically recorded in the wild again. Over time, many experts feared the species may have disappeared entirely.
Instead, it was quietly holding on in one of the most biodiverse corners of the Eastern Himalayas.
A wild relative of the blueberry
Though unfamiliar to most people, Vaccinium piliferum belongs to the Ericaceae family — the same group that includes blueberries and cranberries.
It is a climbing shrub that can grow up to 4.5 metres tall by attaching itself to surrounding trees in dense forest patches. It bears pale green, bell-shaped flowers and dark purple berry-like fruits coated with a whitish-blue waxy layer that resembles cultivated blueberries.
But the significance of the species goes beyond its appearance.
Wild relatives of commercial crops are considered extremely valuable in scientific research because they carry resilient genetic traits that cultivated varieties often lose over time.
Why only 16 plants matter
The rediscovery also comes with a warning.
Researchers documented only 16 surviving plants during the field survey, highlighting how vulnerable the species remains in its natural habitat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) currently classifies Vaccinium piliferum as endangered.
And that concern extends beyond a single plant.
Arunachal Pradesh is considered one of India’s richest biodiversity hotspots, home to forests that support thousands of plant and animal species, many of which remain understudied or undocumented.
Yet these ecosystems are increasingly under pressure from changing land use, infrastructure expansion, and climate instability.
For now, however, the rediscovered shrub remains rooted in a quiet stretch of forest near the Noa-Dihing basin, surviving in small numbers but no longer lost to history.
And in an era when extinction headlines dominate environmental news, the return of a species thought missing for 188 years shows that some corners of the natural world are still capable of surprising us.
