Scientists at the south-west London garden have suspected for decades that a third species of giant water lily might exist, and teamed up with researchers in its native Bolivia to see if their thesis was correct. In 2016, Bolivian institutions, the Santa Cruz de la Sierra Botanical Garden and La Rinconada Gardens, donated a collection of giant water lily seeds from the suspected third species. These were germinated and grown at Kew so they could grow side by side with the other two species. The scientists also studied the DNA of the three plants and found that they were distinctly different. The three species of the genus are Victoria amazonica, cruziana and boliviana, named after Queen Victoria. The results, published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, suggest that the new species is most closely related to Victoria cruziana and that they diverged about a million years ago. Natalia Przelomska, a scientist at Kew who worked on the project, said: “Given the rapid rate of biodiversity loss, describing new species is a task of fundamental importance. We hope that our multidisciplinary framework could inspire other researchers looking for approaches to rapidly and robustly identify new species.” Carlos Magdalena said the discovery of the third species was the biggest achievement of his 20-year career at Kew. Photo: Ines Stuart-Davidson/Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew With leaves reaching three meters in nature, it is also the largest giant water lily on the planet. The showy lily has flowers that turn from white to pink and bears spiny stems, the stem that attaches the leaf to the stem. Naturally found in the aquatic ecosystems of the Llanos de Moxos, the current record for the largest plant of the species is held by La Rinconada Gardens in Bolivia, where the leaves reached 3.2 meters. Specimens of this large aquatic plant sat in the herbarium at Kew for 177 years and in the national plant of Bolivia for 34 years, but it is usually thought to be one of the other two species. Scientists named it Victoria boliviana, in honor of its South American home. There is a gap in our knowledge of giant water lilies as there are very few specimens of the original plants that were used to classify and name the species in the Victorian era. This may be because giant water lilies are difficult to collect from the wild. Kew scientific and botanical research gardener Carlos Magdalena said the discovery is the biggest achievement of his 20-year career at Kew. He added: “Ever since I first saw a photo of this plant online in 2006, I was convinced it was a new species. Gardeners know their plants intimately. we are often able to recognize them at a glance. “It was clear to me that this plant did not quite fit the description of any of the known Victoria species and therefore had to be a third. For nearly two decades, I have scrutinized every photograph of wild Victoria water lilies on the Internet, a luxury that a botanist of the 18th, 19th and most of the 20th centuries did not have.” The Bolivian specimen used to describe the new species was collected in 1988 by Dr Stephan G Beck, Emeritus Professor at the National Herbarium of Bolivia, who thought it was Victoria cruziana. Scientists named the plant Victoria boliviana, in honor of its South American home. Photo: Ines Stuart-Davidson/Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew He said: “When the National Herbarium of Bolivia was born in 1984, there were very few scientific collections about Bolivia and many places to study, but I focused my interest on an area in the Llanos de Moxos. For several years I had the opportunity to collect aquatic plants in flooded areas of the Yacuma River and obviously longed to see the Reina Victoria that the locals told me about. “However, it took me years to find this huge plant. Finally, in March 1988, after wading the Yacuma River for over two hours in search of tributaries with many huge leaves and a few flowers, I collected and preserved in the National Herbarium of Bolivia what turned out to be a specimen of Victoria boliviana, now the type specimen . It was a great find and one I will always remember.” The plant can now be seen in the Water Lily House and the Princess of Wales Conservatory at Kew Gardens. Kew is the only place in the world where you can see Victoria’s three described species together side by side.
Giant water lilies – the wonder of the Victorian era
The giant water lily Victoria amazonica attracted crowds who admired its huge circular leaves, strong enough to support the weight of a child. A race to present Queen Victoria with the first giant water lily flower has broken out among botanists after Kew Gardens tried for a decade to grow the seeds. Six of these were successfully planted, with some being preserved and the rest sent to Syon House in London and Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
