Sporadic rains in the Atacama Desert reveal a high biodiversity of plant species that only occur there. One of these rare species is the “Red añañuca” (
Zephyranthes phycelloides
), formerly known as
Rhodophiala phycelloides
. Many species of
Zephyranthes
in the Atacama Desert are dangerously threatened, due to massive extraction of bulbs and cutting of flowers. Therefore, studies of the biodiversity of these endemic species, which are essential for their conservation, should be conducted sooner rather than later. There are some chloroplast genomes available for
Amaryllidaceae
species, however there is no complete chloroplast genome available for any of the species of
Zephyranthes
subgenus
Myostemma
. The aim of the present work was to characterize and analyze the chloroplast of
Z. phycelloides
by NGS sequencing. The chloroplast genome of the
Z. phycelloides
consists of 158,107 bp, with typical quadripartite structures: a large single copy (LSC, 86,129 bp), a small single copy (SSC, 18,352 bp), and two inverted repeats (IR, 26,813 bp). One hundred thirty-seven genes were identified: 87 coding genes, 8 rRNA, 38 tRNA and 4 pseudogenes. The number of SSRs was 64 in
Z. phycelloides
and a total of 43 repeats were detected. The phylogenetic analysis of
Z. phycelloides
shows a distinct subclade with respect to
Z. mesochloa
. The average nucleotide variability (
Pi
) between
Z. phycelloides
and
Z. mesochloa
was of 0.02000, and seven loci with high variability were identified:
psbA
,
trnS
GCU
-trnG
UCC
, trnD
GUC
-trnY
GUA
, trnL
UAA
-trnF
GAA
, rbcL, psbE-petL
and
ndhG-ndhI
. The differences between the species are furthermore confirmed by the high amount of SNPs between these two species. Here, we report for the first time the complete cp genome of one species of the
Zephyranthes
subgenus
Myostemma
, which can be used for phylogenetic and population genomic studies.