{"id":9717,"date":"2022-07-06T12:44:01","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T12:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species"},"modified":"2022-07-06T13:26:12","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T13:26:12","slug":"scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/botswana\/all-news\/scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover new giant water lily species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. <\/strong><\/span>A new species of giant water lily has been discovered – and it\u2019s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years.<\/b><\/p>\n

The huge plant had been in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and was growing in a number of aquatic collections but it was mistakenly identified as another species.<\/p>\n

Now a detailed scientific study has revealed that it is new to science.<\/p>\n

It also holds the record as the world’s largest water lily, with leaves growing more than 3m (10ft) wide.<\/p>\n

The plant has been called Victoria boliviana – named after Bolivia, where it grows in a single water basin in part of the Amazon river system.<\/p>\n

Horticulturist Carlos Magdalena, one of the world\u2019s leading water lily experts, long suspected that the plant was different from the other two known giant species, Victoria amazonica and Victoria cruziana.<\/p>\n

So scientists from Bolivia – from the National Herbarium of Bolivia, Santa Cruz Botanic Gardens and Public Botanic Garden La Rinconada – donated some seeds to Kew.<\/p>\n

He told BBC News: \u201cIt meant we could grow it side-by-side with the two other species under exactly the same conditions. Once we did this we could very clearly see that every single part of the plant was totally different.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the find as the \u201chighlight\u201d of his career.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Working alongside Carlos, botanical illustrator Lucy Smith made detailed scientific drawings of all three species.<\/p>\n

This also involved heading into the glasshouse at night because water lily flowers only come out in the dark.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI was able to get access to the flowers, and also by looking at the leaves, I could, as an illustrator, highlight those differences that I saw.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd in fact, while I was drawing those differences, they became even stronger in my mind and I found new ways of telling them apart.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cMaybe I\u2019m biased, but out of the three species I think [the new species] has one of the most beautiful flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kew has a long history with the plants – the Waterlily House was built in 1852 to showcase its collections.<\/p>\n

The giants – discovered in the 1800s – were a natural wonder of the age, and the genus was named after Queen Victoria.<\/p>\n

But the new discovery shows that water lilies still have some surprises, and scientists say there is still much to learn about them.<\/p>\n

Dr Alex Monro, from RBG Kew, explained: \u201dNone of the three species have been very well studied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don’t know how many populations there are and how much they vary in size. We don’t really understand the pollination biology very well. We don’t know a lot about the dispersal of the species – how it transmits itself from one place to another.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there are still many unknowns. And I think, because they’re so huge – so obvious – people haven’t really thought to study them in that much detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Botswana<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Botswana. A new species of giant water lily has been discovered – and it\u2019s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years. The huge plant had been in the archives of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and was growing in a number of aquatic collections but it was mistakenly identified as another species. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":9716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,237,234],"class_list":["post-9717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-botswana","tag-botswana"],"yoast_head":"\nScientists discover new giant water lily species - Botswana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new species of giant water lily has been discovered - and it\u2019s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years. 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