A new species of giant waterlily has been identified deep in Colombia’s jungle after a chance encounter on social media, though researchers say the plant is already critically endangered.
The discovery was set in motion three years ago when Carlos Magdalena, a waterlily specialist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, came across an Instagram photograph of a person swimming alongside several giant waterlilies in the Inírida River in Guainía, Colombia.
The image had been posted by Jeremiah Harris, who runs a carnivorous plant nursery in the United States. He had not realised its significance and had misidentified the plant as the more common Victoria amazonica.
Magdalena said he “immediately suspected” something was unusual because the natural range of Victoria amazonica does not reach the Inírida River. He contacted Harris to establish the exact location, then spent several years studying satellite imagery and securing both funding and the permits required to confirm the plant’s presence in person.
Accompanied by a team from the Jardín Botánico in Bogotá and members of local indigenous reserves, Magdalena undertook a five-day expedition into the rainforest. The group searched the flooded jungle for several days without success until, at the last moment, their driver pointed them toward a possible site. With just 10 hours remaining before their return flight, the team travelled overnight in complete darkness to a small lake deep in the flooded forest, where they found a population of the waterlilies.
“It was so emotional I shed a tear, it was one of those moments that will remain with me for life,” Magdalena said. “Coming across something like this is absolutely totally fascinating, it’s jaw dropping.”
He added: “Giant waterlilies give away their secrets slowly. It’s remarkable. We believe we know everything but the reality is we don’t, there’s lots of things still to be discovered and protected.”
The team gathered the material needed for a formal identification. A paper published on Friday in the journal Phytotaxa confirmed the plant as new to science, giving it the official name Victoria colombiana. Only three other giant waterlily species were previously known.
Harris, a co-author of the study, said his friends had always teased him for taking selfies with plants, but that this one had led to the discovery of a new species — something he described as “incredible”. “I was just so excited, absolutely elated,” he said.
Magdalena said: “This is one of those extraordinary stories where indigenous and horticultural knowledge with the help of social media and technology came together to uncover a truly extraordinary botanical achievement.”
Giant waterlilies can grow up to three metres across and are strong enough to support the weight of a small child. They rank among the oldest flowering plants still alive, predating the breakup of the continents, and appear throughout human culture from ancient Egypt to Monet.
The team estimates that between 30 and 50 Victoria colombiana plants survive in the wild, making the species extremely rare and at risk of extinction.
Maarten Christenhusz, a plant taxonomist who analysed the sample, said new species are identified regularly, but few are as “large, spectacular and emblematic as this one”. He said: “This new giant waterlily can even be seen from space, which is a striking reminder of how much we still don’t know about life on our planet.”
The researchers are pursuing an official International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List designation. Work is also under way to secure the plant’s long-term survival, including the possibility of establishing a naturalised population in a more accessible lake inside indigenous territory. The team hopes to continue collecting the plant’s seed with the aim of cultivating it in Bogotá, and if those efforts succeed there is a chance the waterlily could eventually be grown at Kew Gardens.
COMMENTS