{"id":8295,"date":"2022-08-06T15:57:39","date_gmt":"2022-08-06T15:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species"},"modified":"2022-08-06T16:03:03","modified_gmt":"2022-08-06T16:03:03","slug":"scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/scientists-discover-new-giant-water-lily-species","title":{"rendered":"Scientists discover new giant water lily species"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>A new species of giant water lily has been discovered \u2013 and it\u2019s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years.<\/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\u2019s largest water lily, with leaves growing more than 3m (10ft) wide.<\/p>\n

The plant has been called Victoria boliviana \u2013 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 \u2013 from the National Herbarium of Bolivia, Santa Cruz Botanic Gardens and Public Botanic Garden La Rinconada \u2013 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

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

Kew has a long history with the plants \u2013 the Waterlily House was built in 1852 to showcase its collections.<\/p>\n

The giants \u2013 discovered in the 1800s \u2013 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\u2019t know how many populations there are and how much they vary in size. We don\u2019t really understand the pollination biology very well. We don\u2019t know a lot about the dispersal of the species \u2013 how it transmits itself from one place to another.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there are still many unknowns. And I think, because they\u2019re so huge \u2013 so obvious \u2013 people haven\u2019t really thought to study them in that much detail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. A new species of giant water lily has been discovered \u2013 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":8294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9],"tags":[291,293,292],"class_list":["post-8295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\nScientists discover new giant water lily species - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new species of giant water lily has been discovered \u2013 and it\u2019s been hiding in plain sight for 177 years. 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