Accelerating the discovery of rare tree species in Amazonian forests: integrating long monitoring tree plot data with metabolomics and phylogenetics for the description of a new species in the hyperdiverse genus Mill.

In species-rich regions and highly speciose genera, the need for species identification and taxonomic recognition has led to the development of emergent technologies. Here, we combine long-term plot data with untargated metabolomics, and morphological and phylogenetic data to describe a new rare species in the hyperdiverse genus of trees Mill. Our combined data show that is a new lineage splitting from their closest relatives and . Moreover, analyses of the chemical defensive profile demonstrate that has a very distinctive chemistry from their closest relatives, with having a chemistry based on saponins and and producing a series of dihydroflavonols in addition to saponins. Finally, data from our network of plots suggest that is a rare and probably endemic taxon in the hyper-diverse genus . Thus, the synergy produced by different approaches, such as long-term plot data and metabolomics, could accelerate taxonomic recognition in challenging tropical biomes.