A group of experts from Kew Gardensthe well-known botanical garden in west London, revealed on Monday that they discovered a new species of giant water lily, the first to be recorded since the mid-19th century.
The specimens had been in Kew Gardens for 177 years and in the Bolivian National Herbarium for 34 years before experts realized it was a new species.
At first, scientists thought it was an ‘Amazon Victoria’, one of two varieties of giant water lilies named after Queen Victoria.
But after an investigation with a team that traveled from Bolivia, experts from the British garden determined that it is actually a third variety.
In addition to being the most recent species of giant water lily, “Bolivian Victoria”, whose leaves can measure up to three meters long, it is also the largest in the world.
Meet Victoria boliviana, the record-breaking giant waterlily which has been named new to science at Kew after spending 177 years hidden under the surface of our collections.
Uncover more about this fascinating discovery: https://t.co/lqLFc7r0RN pic.twitter.com/G3NGOo0KYx
— Kew Gardens (@kewgardens) July 4, 2022
The years of research that led to this discovery are captured in an article in the journal Frontiers in Plant Sciencespublished this Monday.
The seeds of this third species of giant water lily had been donated by the botanical gardens of Santa Cruz de La Sierra and La Rinconada in Bolivia.
The illustrator specialized in botanical drawings Lucy Smith, who participated in the investigations, recounted that they had grown, but without being referenced, in a pond in Kew in the last four years.
“We actually had this wonderful secret hidden in plain sight for all this time,” he told AFP.
After years of study, the team led by the Spanish horticulturist and scientist @Plantmessiah of @kewgardens has now been able to confirm that it is a new species, using new data and its multidisciplinary experience. The article has been published in the magazine @FrontiersIn pic.twitter.com/FXGoPViXVU
— ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDEN (@RJBOTANICO) July 4, 2022
A Spaniard, after the discovery
charles magdalenea Spanish researcher, horticulturist and worker at Kew Gardens, specializing in the preservation of plant species in danger of extinction, described the plant as “one of the botanical wonders of the world”.
The researcher explained that some 2,000 species of plants are discovered each year, but “what is very unusual is that a plant of this size with this type of notoriety is discovered in 2022.”
“This shows us to what extent we know very little about the natural world,” he said. “This plant (which they’ve named Bolivian Victoria) is so super iconic… If you had to choose the ten most wonderful plants of the plant kingdom, this would always be“, Magdalena underlines in statements to Efe.
Its name, Bolivian Victoria, honors fellow Bolivians and the home where the water lily grows in South America, the aquatic ecosystems of Llanos de Moxos.
Giant water lilies have a flower that turns from white to pink at night.
The Asturian botanical scientist and horticulturist highlights the extraordinary characteristics of the plant: “A three-meter water lily, in which you can put a person, in which birds make nests, which has 70-centimeter flowers (…) has a kind of aura, of exoticism, there is nothing with which compare it,” he says.
The first time he saw the specimen was in a photo, in 2006, and he assures that he knew even then that it was a new species.
“Once you meet a species, it’s like meeting a person. With just a glance you don’t need to think. One day I came across a photo of a garden in Santa Cruz (…) and I automatically realized in when I saw her,” he says.
But he points out that this new species, in fact, it was already discovered and drawn for the first time by the naturalist Tadeo Haenke during the Spanish expeditions of Malaspina in 1801.
It was also the first recorded species of the genus Victoria, although it was not described as a scientific species at the time.
As a horticulturist he states: “You have a sixth sense that tells you that something doesn’t fit but then, when you discover it, you can’t even believe it. It’s so impressive (…) Suddenly you discover something that was really already discovered but that It wasn’t discovered either.
After years of studythe Spanish-led team, with Kew-based freelance botanical artist Lucy Smith and biodiversity genomics researcher Natalia Przelomska, along with colleagues from the National Herbarium of Bolivia, the Santa Cruz de La Sierra Botanical Garden and the Jardines La Rinconada, confirmed that it was indeed a new species thanks to the use of new data.
Related news
The study highlights that Victoria boliviana is now the largest water lily in the world, with white flowers that later turn pink, with spiny petioles and with leaves that grow up to 3 meters wide in nature. The current record is held by La Rinconada Gardens in Bolivia, where the leaves reached 3.2 meters.
Kew Garden is the only one in the world where visitors can admire species of the Victoria typethe ‘Amazon’, the ‘Cruzian’ and now the ‘Bolivian’.