A new type of giant water lily – “Victoria boliviana”
KYIV. UkraineGate. 4. July . 2022 | Society.
British scientists discovered a new species of giant water lily growing in a number of aquatic collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London. For 177 years, the plant was mistakenly identified as a different species .
Details
This plant is considered the largest water lily in the world, its leaves grow more than 3 meters wide. It received the name “Victoria boliviana”, in honor of the country of Bolivia, where it grows in one of the water basins of the Amazon.
Carlos Magdalena, one of the world’s leading water lily experts, noticed that this plant is different from other well-known species of water lily – “Victoria amazonica” and “Victoria cruziana”. Collaborating with scientists from the National Herbarium of Bolivia, the Santa Cruz Botanical Garden, and the La Rinconada Public Botanical Garden, he collected some of the seeds and began researching them.
“This meant we could grow it side by side with two other species under exactly the same conditions. When we did that, we could clearly see that every single part of the plant was completely different,” he said, calling the find “a highlight ” of his career.
Botanical illustrator Lucy Smith made detailed scientific drawings of all three species.
“I was able to access the flowers, and also by looking at the leaves, I could, as an illustrator, emphasize the differences that I saw. And actually, while I was drawing these differences, they became even stronger in my mind, and I found new ways to tell them apart. Maybe I’m biased, but of the three species, I think the new species has some of the prettiest flowers,” she said.
Before
British researchers unearthed the remains of a new species of stegosaurus.
Source: Ukrgate
