The Portuguese contribution to the global effort to describe plant biodiversity in 2023 was announced in a statement by the Portuguese Botany Society (SPB), specifying that in total those responsible discovered six new species, eight new subspecies and five new natural hybrids.

The species, from seven countries, were described by 11 researchers in five international scientific publications.

According to the statement about the new species, Miguel Porto, a researcher at the Center for Research in Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO) at the University of Porto, discovered, with a researcher from the University of Córdoba, a new species of parasitic plant that is only known, at the moment, in the vicinity of the castle of Noudar, Barrancos.

This is noudar bullwort, a new species of bullwort, plants that are holoparasites, which means that they do not carry out photosynthesis, depending exclusively on their hosts for food.

Also in 2023, researchers Ana Carla Gonçalves and Paulo Silveira, from the University of Aveiro, described 10 new marigolds from the mountains of Algeria and Morocco.

In South Africa, researcher Estrela Figueiredo, in collaboration with British researcher Gideon F. Smith, both affiliated with Nelson Mandela University, discovered a new succulent plant in the Drakensberg mountain range, South Africa.

And researcher João Farminhão, from the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, identified, in collaboration, two new epiphytic orchids (which grow on trees) in Tropical Africa.

SPB also states that the year 2023 was marked in Portugal by the publication of a new list of oak trees in the country.