At the Royal Botanic Garden in London, they recently discovered that they have the world’s largest water lily species.
For a long time, the employees thought that the large water lily was of the common species Victoria amazonica, but it turned out to be a completely new species.
Namely the species Victoria boliviana, which is also the largest in the world. It writes CNN.
– An incredible achievement
The record-breaking water lily has been in London’s botanical gardens for several years, without them realizing how special and unique it really was.
The water lily can be over three meters wide and can carry a weight of up to 80 kilos.
“Having this new data for” Victoria “, and identifying a new species in the genus, is an incredible achievement in botany, said taxonomist, botanist and field researcher Alex Monro after the discovery.
– RARE: Here the leaves of the rare water lily species Victoria boliviana are examined by researcher and horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena. The lily leaves can grow over three meters wide. Photo: Dominic Lipinski / Pa Photos
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Monro has been involved in writing a study on the new species, which was published in Frontiers in Plant Science.
He believes that proper identification and documentation of plant diversity can be crucial to protect species, and sustainably benefit from them.
Only in the world
The aim of the study, of which Monro was a part, was to improve knowledge about Victoria water lilies.
After discovering the Bolivian species, it gave botanists a rare opportunity.
The Royal Botanic Garden is the only place in the world that cultivates all three species found by Victoria side by side. In this way, they can find out more about the different species.
– GIVES SPACE: Here a leaf is removed from the cruziana water lily to make room for the new giant species boliviana. Photo: Ashlee Ruggels / Pa Photos
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The three Victoria species are named: Boliviana, Amazonica and Cruziana.
Researcher and horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena, who was also part of the study, has suspected since 2006 that it could be a third Victoria species.
– For almost two decades, I have examined every single picture of wild Victoria water lines on the Internet, he says.
Carlos calls web search a luxury that today’s botanists have. It gives them the opportunity to study species from around the world at the same time.
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