New Giant Water Lilly Found

In the deepest rainforest of the Amazon or Congo? No, in Kew Gardens, London. Not only are the Gardens a magnet for tourists like US, but also a treasure house of biodiversity.  In a greenhouse devoted entirely to water lilies scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, as it is formally known discovered that a water lilly they thought to be another species is a distinct speciest.Victoria bolivianais also the world's biggest water lilly, growning up to 10 feet wide and strong enough for a child to sit on without getting wet. A native of Bolivia's Amazon River basin. Horticulturalist Carlos Magdalena suspected the lily to be separate from two other giants in the collection, V. amazonica and V. cruziana.

Bolivian scientists gave Kew some seeds, so they could grow the plants side by side. The distinctions were easy to detect once the plants reached maturity. Detailed anotomical drawings were made of the three lilies, but they had to be accomplished at night, which is the only time the lilies flower. [photo credit: C. Magdalena]

The genus is named after Queen Victoria who was on the British throne at the time of their discovery in the 1800s. Waterlily House was built in 1852 to showcase the collection. Much remains to be understood about the giant plants such as how they are pollinated in the wild and how they disperse. More about the plants can be found at the journal, Frontiers in Plant Biology.