New water lily species called Victoria bolivia surprises everyone with its size

Recently, research based on the extraordinary hunch of a water lily expert has discovered a new species of agiant water lily, which has been growing for the past 177 years at the Kew Gardens Herbarium in London, England. The discovery marks the first discovery of a new species of giant water lily in more than a century. There were only two known giant water lily species in the famous Victoria genus, and with this new species, there are now three.

The discovery, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, was initiated by gardener Carlos Magdalena and botanical artist Lucy Smith. Magdalena was convinced it was a third member of the genus Victoria after seeing photos of the plant online in 2006.

“For almost two decades, I’ve been reviewing every picture of wild Victorian water lilies online for almost two decades, a luxury that botanists of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries didn’t have,” Magdalena said in a statement to IFLscience.

Two specimens, one growing in Kew and the other at the Bolivian National Herbarium for the past 34 years, were previously thought to be Victoria amazonica. However, after a long investigation, the team confirmed that it is a new scientific species.

The new name for this giant water lily is Victoria bolivia, in honor of its country of origin and the Bolivian partners on the project. Victoria bolivia is found in the aquatic ecosystems of Llanos de Moxos and currently stands out as the largest giant water lily species in the world. One specimen, currently in La Rinconada Gardens in Bolivia, is said to be a record holder with leaves reaching 3.2 meters.

Characterizing species in the Victoria genus has been challenging for many years, especially as wild giant water lily specimens are so difficult to collect. Further challenge is the lack of “type specimens”, the plant specimens involved in the original process to aid in naming the species. For example, V. amazonica was the first member to be named within this genus in 1832, but there are insufficient data to compare any recent specimens with it.

The team used a combination of historical records, geography and horticultural records, as well as living specimens from around the world, to arrive at the identification of this species. They also took advantage of citizen support on social media to view images tagging Victoria and other giant water lilies.

Lucy Smith’s drawings

Botanical artist Lucy Smith began to share Magdalen’s suspicions about the lotus after she noticed during her nighttime visits to the greenhouse that the flowers were only open at night. It was then that she noticed the unique features and began to describe them through her drawings.

Natalia Przelomska and Oscar A. Pérez-Escobar of Kew did an in-depth DNA analysis of V.boliviana and found that it was very different genetically from the two known species. Their results show that V.bolivia was most closely related to V.cruziana and diverged about one million years ago.