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A brand-spanking new water lily species has been discovered by horticulture experts at Kew Gardens.
The jumbo water lily, which lives in the Princess of Wales Conservatory at the Royal Botanical Gardens, has been named new to science, in the first discovery of its kind in more than a century. International horticulturalists have said that the giant breaks the record for the largest of its kind, making it the largest water lily on the planet with leaves spanning more than three metres.
The water lily house at Kew Gardens opened in 1852 and was built to house the enormous plants discovered by explorers in the Amazon basin.
Named after Queen Victoria, the Victoria amazonica attracted crowds who marvelled at its huge circular leaves, strong enough to bear the weight of a six-year-old.
Specimens of the new species have been sitting in Kew’s Herbarium for 177 years and in the National Herbarium of Bolivia for 34 years. During this time, it was commonly believed to be Victoria amazonica.
However, Kew’s trusty scientific and botanical research horticulturist Carlos Magdalena, alongside biodiversity genomics researcher Natalia Przelomska, have finally confirmed a newfound scientific species.
Magdalena said the discovery is the biggest achievement of his 20-year career at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
The jaw-dropping lily has flowers which turn from white to pink, and bears spiny petioles.
Natalia Przelomska said: ‘In the face of a fast rate of biodiversity loss, describing new species is a task of fundamental importance; we hope that our multidisciplinary framework might inspire other researchers who are seeking approaches to rapidly and robustly identify new species.’
You can visit the gigantic water lily at the Princess of Wales conservatory at Kew Gardens. Kew is the only place in the world the three species of Victoria side by side. Which is nice for all those lily completists out there.
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