The new species marks the first discovery of a giant water lily in more than a century and breaks a record as the world’s largest at over 3 meters wide.
A new species and the largest in the world
Botanists describe it as “one of the botanical wonders of the world”. Its water lilies can reach more than 3.2 meters wide in the wild, and its flowers that can grow up to 36 cm, larger than the average human head.
The species continues to grow at Kew’s Waterlily House and Princess of Wales Conservatory. The water lily, nicknamed Victoria Boliviana, was previously thought to be a hybrid of two species but has been confirmed to be a third species of giant water lily, previously unknown to science.
Describing a new species “in the face of a rapid rate of biodiversity loss is a task of fundamental importance,” says Natalia Przelomska, a biologist at Kew Gardens.
The genus Victoria was named after Queen Victoria by the British botanist John Lindley and, until now, only comprised Victoria Cruziana and Victoria Amazonica. The new species is Victoria Boliviana and grows in the aquatic ecosystems of the Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia, with flowers that change from white to pink and bloom only at night, emerging at dusk and closing at noon.
Species in the genus Victoria have proven difficult to characterize in the past due to the absence of “type specimens” (specimens of the original plant used to formally describe the species) in global plant collections. This is mainly due to the fact that giant water lilies are difficult to collect in the wild.
The Victoria Boliviana species is genetically distinct from V Cruziana and V Amazonica, but is more closely related to the former. Scientists believe that V Boliviana and V Cruziana diverged about a million years ago.
Referencia: Revised Species Delimitation in the Giant Water Lily Genus Victoria (Nymphaeaceae) Confirms a New Species and Has Implications for Its Conservation Front. Plant Sci., 04 July 2022 Sec.Plant Systematics and Evolution
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.883151
